Lucas Cranach

1472-1553

Lucas Cranach the Elder was the most successful German artist of the Renaissance, spending most of his career as court painter to the Electors of Saxony. Born in Kronach in 1472, he established himself in Wittenberg from 1504 onward, developing a prolific workshop that produced paintings, woodcuts, engravings, and designs across multiple genres. He became famous for his unflinching portraits of German princes and Protestant Reformers, and was a close friend of Martin Luther, whom he depicted repeatedly and for whom he created woodcut illustrations. Cranach's religious paintings evolved with the Reformation, moving from Catholic altarpieces toward new visual expressions of Lutheran theology. He was equally renowned for his mythological nudes, rendered with an elegant, sinuous grace distinct from his Italian contemporaries. He also held the monopoly on medicine sales in Wittenberg and operated printing presses. He died in Weimar in 1553 at eighty-one.