Cranach lucas the elder biography of albert king

One of Germany's most eminent sixteenth century artists, Cranach's career tends to be divided into three phases. He made his early reputation as a painter of romanticized devotional pieces set in the rugged landscapes of the Alpine foothills. These brought him acclaim as a pioneer amongst a group of Viennese landscapists who became the Danube School.

Adam and eve (cranach)

It is his middle phase, however, that his greatest fame rests. As the most important artist of the Protestant Reformation his court portraiture and woodcuts helped Protestantism become the major movement within Christianity in sixteenth century Europe. By the time he reached his mature years, his earlier individualism had plateaued, and his later works are, by most historians' accounts, notable chiefly for the remarkable speed of their execution and the finery of their finish.

Cranach was described on his tombstone as Pictor celerrimus "swiftest of painters". The stout figure, dressed in a deep fur robe with a red hat, holds a heavy book while looking outside the picture frame. Indeed, the subject, Johannes Cuspinian , was an Austrian polymath, diplomat and political commentator who was studying and teaching in Vienna in the time Cranach was resident there.

This portrait part of a pair of portraits with Cuspinian's wife, Anna is in fact a tribute, from an aspirational artist who would soon become a court painter in Saxony, to a figure who was already established in his profession s and whose star was still in the ascendency. The year-old Cuspinian was already Rector at the university in Vienna, while Cranach a year older than his subject likely saw in him a role model.