Lucas Cranach The Elder Biography and Artwork

Lucas Cranach the Elder was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker known for his portraits of German royalty, mythological paintings and biblical scenes with elongated, semi-erotic nudes. He was born in Kronach, part of the bishopric of Bamberg in Germany. It is speculated that his father, Hans Maler, was his first teacher. Very little is known about his life before around 1500-01 when he settled in Vienna and began working in the humanist circles associated with the newly founded university.

Cranach’s most famous works include portraiture portraying princes and leaders of the Protestant Reformation. In addition to portraiture work, he painted altarpieces and Lutheran subject pictures such as Adam and Eve or John as though they were Greek gods on ceramic plates.The artist also created a large number of mythological pieces; these pieces incorporated erotic themes that were characteristic of much Northern Renaissance art.

Cranach was court painter to the Elector’s court at Wittenberg for most of his career until around 1550 when he retired to Weimar. Considered one of Saxony’s leading painters in addition to being one of the most influential artists in 16th-century German art, Cranach left behind two talented sons who went on to become renowned painters themselves: Hans Cranach and Lucas Cranach The Younger.

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