The Cranach's

Good morning, we are going to do an exploration of a pair of Renaissance artists: Lucas Cranach the Elder and Lucas Cranach the Younger.  The run time for this documentary is 42:37.

They are two of the greatest artist of the 16th Century, Lucas and Lucas Cranach.  They ran a workshop and produced some of the greatest works of the Reformation.  They made their fortune painting.  The pair were personal friends of Martin Luther.  They painted more and faster than any of their contemporaries.  Generations of scholars have studied the Cranachs’, however, there are still questions that have to be answered.  Today, modern technology may have scholars find the answers they are looking for.

Today, scholars are studying a piece that came from the Cranachs’ workshop.  Was this altarpiece done by the elder or the younger?  The altarpiece looks like it was created according to Cranach’s the Elder’s instructors.  Cranach the Elder began painting familiar motifs.  The Saints wore fashions of the day and jewelry and were placed in realistic scenes.  It was a new world and he was exploring it through painting.  In Wittenberg, the All Saints Castle Church and Saint Mary’s Town Church dominated the horizon.  The elector of Saxony had a residence in Wittenberg.  His name was Frederick the Wise and he dreamed of a Renaissance with a Saxon touch.  He was a patron of the arts and education.  He established the University of Wittenberg and it would be the center of the arts and sciences.

Intellectual freedom and humanism flourished in Wittenberg.  It was a small town and had about 2,500 people.  It was dominated by students and professors.  There were printers and other trades.  So many talents came together in this one town.  In 1505, Lucas Cranach was appointed court painter by Frederick the Wise.  Lucas was paid a yearly salary and it was a respectable position.  One of the primary duties was to paint the ruler’s portrait.  He also supervised the decoration for the tournaments that were held at the castle and would then would do a wood engraving of the events. 

Cranach although informed about what was happening in Italy during the Renaissance, ignored what was coming out.  He continuously developed his style.  He faced criticism for his choices.  When he arrived at Wittenberg, he created a painting for the castle church.  It was of the Virgin Mary and she was portrayed as looking directly at the viewer.  A depiction of Mary in the flesh would have been unthinkable before the Renaissance.

The Cranach workshop produced 15,000 works.  Since 2009, these works and information about the works have been published on the Cranach Digital Archive.  This archive is accessible to scholars.  One work, the Martyrdom of St. Catherine was a popular subject to paint.  

Not much is known about Lucas Cranach the Elder.  He was believed to be born in Cranach in the German region of Franconia and would have received his training in his father’s workshop.  He would have left home as a journeyman.  Eventually, he would disappear from the record before emerging as a painter in Vienna.  Vienna was a major city in the Holy Roman Empire and it would be here he would paint his first known works.  His early paintings show that he was developing his style.  He would eventually meet Martin Luther and would become friends.

The Church permeated society, if you were a citizen of a city, you belonged to the parish too.  Martin Luther would start a revolution with his 99 Thesis and Cranach would become the painter of the Reformation.  His new paintings would depict the relationship between man and God.  He conveyed theology in paintings and would show the changes that were going on in Wittenberg.  Cranach would paint the people he knew in Biblical scenes.  Cranach was close friends with Luther.  Eventually, Cranach would witness the marriage between Martin Luther and Katherina von Bora.  Luther would witness Cranach’s marriage to his wife.  To learn more about the Cranachs’, their workshop, and their place in the Reformation, continue to watch this documentary.

I am trying to build up a list for the Renaissance and found this documentary while exploring that topic.  This would be a good documentary for an art history class or independent study students.

The Cranach Archive is found here: https://lucascranach.org/home