Cranach, Lucas

Cranach, Lucas
(the Elder, 1472-1553)
   German painter, print-maker, and illustrator of books. He was born at Kronach in Bavaria and trained by his father but came under the influence of the greatest German Renaissance artist, Albrecht Dürer. He lived for about two years in Vienna, where he absorbed the influence of the humanist circle dominated by Conrad Celtis and began producing religious paintings and landscapes. His well-known Flight into Egypt (1504) combines a religious theme and a landscape in a way that attracted attention from other German artists. About 1504 he settled in Wittenberg, where he became court painter to Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony. Cranach was strongly attracted to Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. He painted several portraits of Luther and made illustrations for Luther's German Bible and for Lutheran religious tracts. Luther did not approve the iconoclastic policies of many other Protestant leaders. He endorsed Cranach's work and encouraged him to create a style appropriate for Evangelical religious sentiment.
   Cranach became a successful artistic entrepreneur, employing his sons Hans and Lucas the Younger as well as a number of apprentices in a large and productive workshop. Later in life he also painted allegories that incorporated mythological and secular elements such as female nudes that show the influence of Italian art, but without capturing the cultural and iconographic sensibility of his Italian predecessors. In the best-known of these allegories, The Judgment of Paris (1530), the theme and the gently erotic female nudes express Italian influence, but Paris appears as a German knight in modern armor; and the three nude damsels are naked Northern women, not classical nudes, while the background is a clearly German landscape.

Historical Dictionary of Renaissance. . 2004.

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  • Cranach, Lucas — Cranach, Lucas, einer der vorzüglichsten Maler altdeutscher Schule, 1472 geboren, kam frühzeitig an den Hof Friedrich s des Weisen und stieg in der Gunst des Kurfürsten bald so hoch, daß er zum Hofmaler ernannt und in den Ritterstand erhoben ward …   Damen Conversations Lexikon

  • Cranach, Lucas —    [the elder] (1472 Kronach 10/16/1553) (Germany); aka Sunder, Lucas / Mueller, Lucas / Chronus, Lucas    Painter, copper engraver, woodcut printmaker, and illustrator. Little is known of his early development. Became court painter in Wittenberg …   Dictionary of erotic artists: painters, sculptors, printmakers, graphic designers and illustrators

  • Cranach,Lucas — Cra·nach (kräʹnäKH), Lucas. Known as “the Elder.” 1472 1553. German painter and engraver noted for his many portraits and religious works, some of which depict the theological views of his friend Martin Luther. * * * …   Universalium

  • Cranach, Lucas, the Elder — orig. Lucas Müller born 1472, Cranach, bishopric of Bamberg died Oct. 16, 1553, Weimar, Saxe Weimar German painter and printmaker. He took his name from the town of his birth. Little is known about his early life or training. In Vienna (с… …   Universalium

  • CRANACH, Lucas, The Elder — (1472 1553) German painter and printmaker Lucas Cranach, along with rival artist Hans Burgkmair,* is credited with inventing the chiaroscuro woodcut, a medium Cranach perfected. Born in Kronach, Lucas succeeded several generations of paint­ers,… …   Renaissance and Reformation 1500-1620: A Biographical Dictionary

  • Cranach, Lucas, el Viejo — orig. Lucas Müller (1472, Cranach, obispado de Bamberg–16 oct. 1553, Weimar, Saxe Weimar). Pintor y grabador alemán. Tomó su nombre de su pueblo natal. Se sabe muy poco de los inicios de su vida y de su formación. En Viena ( 1501–04) pintó… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Cranach, Lucas, — ► (1472 1553) Pintor alemán, llamado el Viejo. Maestro de la escuela realista. De su primera época destacan dos cuadros sobre la Crucifixión. Realizó retratos de personajes destacados como Lutero, Melanchthon, el emperador Carlos V y el príncipe… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • CRANACH, LUCAS —    a celebrated German painter, born at Kronach, in the bishopric of Bamberg; was patronised by Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, whom he accompanied in 1493 to the Holy Land; was engraver as well as painter, skilled in portraiture as well… …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

  • Cranach — Cranach, Lucas …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Lucas Cranach the Elder — Portrait of Lucas Cranach the Elder at age 77 by Lucas Cranach the Younger (1550), at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence Birth name Lucas Maler …   Wikipedia

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