Lucas Cranach (1472-1553)

German painter, printmaker, engraver and illustrator, Cranach was one of leading Old Masters of the Northern Renaissance. He established the so-called Danube school, and became famous for his erotic nudes and workmanlike court portraits. His most notable paintings include his portrait of Martin Luther, 1553 (Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweigh) and The Fountain of Youth, c.1546 (Gemaldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin).

Born in Kronach, Bavaria, his father was also an artist and obviously wanted his son to follow in his footsteps, as he named him after St Luke, the patron saint of painters. We do not know how Cranach junior learned his skills as an artist, but it may have been under German masters in Bamberg, the nearby provincial capital.

Judith With The Head Of Holofernes,
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (c.1530)

Although his greatest passion was for art, Cranach was also an astute businessman. He owned a chemist shop - which remained opened for nearly 400 hundred years until it was destroyed in a fire in 1871 - as well as a bookshop. Between 1500 and 1504 he lived in Vienna where he painted portraits of scholars and their wives. These oil paintings proved very popular and brought him to the attention of the Elector of Saxony, who paid him a salary from 1504. In view of the established hierarchy of the genres, most artists of the time focused on producing biblical or history painting, but Cranach (in addition to commercial portrait art) preferred landscape painting and animal pictures of deer and wild boar using strong colours and bold design. Other artists from the Danube area were similarly inspired by nature, and together they became known as the Danube School.

In 1509, Cranach travelled to the Netherlands to paint Emperor Maximilian and his son Charles V. This was a considerable honour and shows that he was already one of the most respected Northern Renaissance artists.

Portrait Of A Woman, National Gallery
of Art, Washington DC (1522)

Up until this point, when Cranach completed a work, he signed his work with his initials. In 1509 the Elector granted him a winged snake as a personal motto, and this motto can be seen on all his pictures after this date.

Cranach did produce some religious works, but his saints were dressed in fashionable clothes and his women looked seductive and inviting. Often they only dressed in thin veils or elegant hats. If you looked closely enough you were likely to see the wife, daughter or mistress of the person who commissioned the work.

Cranach soon became known as the fastest painter in the district. He and his assistants produced watercolours, painters and prints in almost conveyor belt fashion. According to documents from the time, he received an order for sixty pairs of portraits of the Elector and his brother in 1533.

Fountain Of Youth, (detail)
Gemaldegalerie, Berlin (c.1546)

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Examples of Lucas Cranach's best known fine art painting include works like: The Crucifixion, 1502 (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna); Portrait of Dr. Johannes Cuspinian, c.1502 (Dr. Oskar Reinhart Collection, Winterthur, Switzerland); Rest on the Flight to Egypt, 1504 (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin); Venus and Cupid, 1509 (The Hermitage, St. Petersburg); Portrait of Henry the Devout of Saxony, 1514 (Alte Meister Gallerie, Dresden); St Christopher. Reverse Side of St Elizabeth Panel, c.1514 (Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid); Portrait of a Prince of Saxony, c.1517 (Gallery of Art, Washington); The Water Nymph, 1518 (Museum der Bilden Kunste, Leipzig); Portrait of a Woman, 1522 (National Gallery of Art, Washington); Portrait of Katharina von Bora, Wife of Martin Luther, 1526 (Warburg-Stiftung, Eisenach, Germany); Adam and Eve, 1528 (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence); Cupid Complaining to Venus, c.1530 (National Gallery, London) and The Melancholy, 1553 (Le Musée d'Unterlinden de Colmar, France).

At some point in his career Cranach became friendly with the Protestant Reformer, Martin Luther. He went on to paint Luther’s portrait in 1553 and also that of Luther's wife, mother and father. Although Cranach felt an allegiance to the Protestant cause, he continued to accept commissions from wealthy Catholic patrons. In 1553 he handed over his workshop to Lucas the Younger, his son, who carried on the tradition of his father's style. To this day it is difficult to differentiate between the work of the two artists.

Cranach died at Weimar in 1553, and was survived by three sons and one daughter. He remains one of the most notable figures in the history of art of the Northern Renaissance, and to this day the Lutheran Church still commemorates him as an artist every year on April 6.

Excellent examples of Lucas Cranach's works hang in the Pinakothek Museum in Munich, Bavaria.

• For information about the best artists in Ireland, see: Irish Art.

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