In 1523 he hosted King Christian II of Denmark as a guest in his home and a year later he accompanied the elector to the Reichstag in Nuremberg where he again met his friend and rival Albrecht Dürer. By the 1520s he had a licence to sell wine, had been repeatedly elected as a member of the Wittenberg town council, and was owner of numerous properties, a publishing press (together with Christian Döring) and an apothecary. Cranach soon became a man of status in the city of Wittenberg and began to prosper, a situation, which was not achieved by artistic activity alone, but also by his talent as a businessman. Here he met the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I at the oath ceremony of his successor the eight-year-old Archduke Charles, later Charles V. Some years later Maximilian I commissioned Cranach together with the artist Albrecht Dürer to illustrate his prayer book. To meet these extensive demands he established a workshop, which was initially in Wittenberg castle and later moved to premises in the town.In 1508 the elector awarded him the heraldic letter bearing the symbol of a winged serpent. In the year 1505 Cranach was appointed court painter to Friedrich III the Wise, Elector of Saxony, a position he occupied almost uninterrupted until his death.
LUCAS CRANACH
Lucas Cranach the Elder embodies the ideals of Renaissance man active not only as a painter and printmaker, but also as an entrepreneur and politician.
Lucas Cranach the Younger
- Lucas Cranach the Elder embodies the ideals of Renaissance man active not only as a painter and printmaker, but also as an entrepreneur and politician.
- At an early stage Cranach began to identify his artistic production with the court and employed this insignia as a seal of approval on paintings produced by himself and his expanding workshop.
- As an artist Cranach is known for his portraits of German nobility and the leading figures of the Protestant Reformation, whose cause he embraced with enthusiasm.
- His gravestone, which has now been installed in the chancel of the church of Saints Peter and Paul in Weimar, accurately describes him as ‘pictor celerrimus’, the fastest painter.
- In his workshop Cranach printed reformation texts and Luther’s translation of the New Testament.
Numerous portraits of Luther and his wife Katharina von Bora survive and testify to this sympathy. He became a close friend of Martin Luther, serving as best man at his wedding and later godfather to his son. That same year he journeyed in diplomatic service of the elector to the Netherlands where he visited the court of Margaret of Austria in Mechelen. In short Cranach was responsible for almost the entire aesthetic ambience of the court.
- In the year 1505 Cranach was appointed court painter to Friedrich III the Wise, Elector of Saxony, a position he occupied almost uninterrupted until his death.
- Cranach lost his position as court painter after the defeat of the Elector Johann Friedrich I at the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547.
- In 1523 he hosted King Christian II of Denmark as a guest in his home and a year later he accompanied the elector to the Reichstag in Nuremberg where he again met his friend and rival Albrecht Dürer.
- It was here that he met the Italian artist Titian, an encounter which was too late in his career to influence his work.
- Later, inspired by his friend and mentor Melanchthon, he explored new ways of conveying Lutheran religious concerns.
LUCAS CRANACH
At an early stage Cranach began to identify his artistic production with the court and employed this insignia as a seal of approval on paintings produced by himself and his expanding workshop. The workshop enterprise outlived him, and his extraordinary artistic creativity is accentuated by the fact that his son Lucas Cranach the Younger, and other members, continued to create versions of his works for decades after his death. Today the success of the enterprise can be measured in more than 1500 surviving paintings and the difficulty in securing authorship of the highest quality works.
Lucas Cranach the Younger
Insufficient documentation has led to much speculation about his Wanderjahre – years of travel – and real evidence with regard to his artistic identity does not emerge until 1502 in Vienna. Little can be stated with any certainty about his early life except that he was born in the town of Kronach in Northern Franconia as one of four children to the painter Hans Maler and that his mother’s maiden name was Hübner. Detail, showing possibly a self-portrait of Lucas Cranach the Younger
LUCAS CRANACH
It was here that he met the Italian artist Titian, an encounter which was too late in his career to influence his work. Cranach lost his position as court painter after the defeat of the Elector Johann Friedrich I at the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547. In addition to numerous paintings illustrating protestant concerns Cranach also completed paintings in the catholic tradition and numbered the catholic Albertine branch of Saxon princes and Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg among his most important patrons. Cranach’s artistic activity had a significant influence on the evolution of the Reformation in Germany. In his workshop Cranach printed reformation texts and Luther’s translation of the New Testament. As an artist Cranach is known for his portraits of German nobility and the leading figures of the Protestant Reformation, whose cause he embraced with enthusiasm.
His gravestone, which has now been installed in the chancel of the church of Saints Peter and Paul in Weimar, accurately describes him as ‘pictor celerrimus’, the fastest painter. Cranach developed techniques, which enabled him to paint speedily, and procedures of standardization that facilitated easy workshop delegation. From the mid 1520s the size and productivity of the Wittenberg workshop increased. Later, inspired by his friend and mentor pin up casino app Melanchthon, he explored new ways of conveying Lutheran religious concerns.