Lucas Cranach the Elder

Lore & Background

Cranach was born at Kronach in upper Franconia, probably in 1472; his exact date of birth is unknown. He learned drawing from his father Hans Maler, and his mother, surname Hübner, died in 1491. Where Cranach was trained is not known, but it was probably with local south German masters. There are also suggestions that he spent time in Vienna around 1500. From 1504 to 1520 he lived in a house on the south west corner of the marketplace in Wittenberg. His work drew the attention of Duke Frederick III, Elector of Saxony (Frederick the Wise), who attached Cranach to his court in 1504. Cranach married Barbara Brengbier, daughter of a burgher of Gotha; she died at Wittenberg on 26 December 1540. He had two sons, both artists: Hans Cranach, who died in Bologna in 1537, and Lucas Cranach the Younger, born 1515, who died in 1586. He also had three daughters; one, Barbara Cranach, was an ancestor of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Reader's Guide

Cranach's significance lies in his role as a leading German Renaissance artist and his close association with the Protestant Reformation. As court painter to the Electors of Saxony from 1505 to 1550, he produced numerous portraits of Martin Luther and provided woodcut illustrations for Luther's German translation of the Bible. His workshop was large, and many of his works exist in different versions; his son Lucas Cranach the Younger and others continued to create versions of his father's works for decades after his death. Cranach also served twice as burgomaster of Wittenberg (1531 and 1540). His legacy includes a wide range of portraits, religious subjects, and mythological nudes, and he is remembered by the Lutheran Church on 6 April along with Dürer and possibly Grünewald or Burgkmair.

Did You Know?

• Cranach was a close friend of Martin Luther and was godfather to Luther's first child, Johannes 'Hans' Luther, born 1526.
• He was present as a witness at the betrothal festival of Martin Luther and Katharina von Bora.
• Cranach's granddaughter married Polykarp Leyser the Elder, making him an ancestor of the Polykarp Leyser family of theologians.
• He twice served as burgomaster of Wittenberg, in 1531 and 1540.

Court Painter to Saxony

Cranach's professional identity was inseparable from the Saxon ducal court. After his work drew the attention of Frederick the Wise, he was attached to the court in 1504, and his name first appears in Wittenberg's public accounts on 24 June 1504, when he collected fifty gulden as half-year's salary under the title pictor ducalis. He remained in the service of the Elector and his successors for the rest of his life, though he was free to take on other commissions. His duties extended far beyond painting: he designed coins for the electorate, produced decorative murals of game and antlers in the country palaces at Coburg and Locha, and even received a monopoly on the sale of medicines at Wittenberg along with a printer's patent granting exclusive copyright privileges in Bibles. In 1508 the elector bestowed upon him the winged snake as a personal emblem, which replaced his initials on subsequent works.

Art in Service of the Reformation

Cranach's most enduring association is with Martin Luther and the Protestant movement that reshaped German religious life. Working in Wittenberg, the very heart of the emerging Lutheran faith, he used his art as a visible symbol of the new religion. He produced eleven surviving portraits of Luther, first making an engraving of the reformer in 1520 while Luther was still an Augustinian friar. Their personal bond was deep: in a 1521 letter from Worms, Luther called Cranach his "gossip," warmly referencing the artist's wife as his "Gevatterin." Cranach was present as a witness at Luther's betrothal to Katharina von Bora five years after Luther renounced his vows, and he served as godfather to their first child, Johannes "Hans" Luther, born in 1526. Beyond portraiture, Cranach provided woodcut illustrations for Luther's German translation of the Bible, and his own printing presses were used by the reformer. He also evolved his religious painting, moving from the Catholic tradition toward new visual language for Lutheran concerns.

A Polymath of Media and a Prolific Workshop

Cranach worked across an extraordinary range of artistic media. In addition to oil painting, he produced woodcuts, engravings, decorative murals, and coin designs for the Saxon electorate. Early in his career he astonished courtiers with the startling realism of his still-life paintings of game, deer, and wild boar on the walls of ducal palaces, and the duke encouraged this passion by taking him into the hunting field to sketch his grace pursuing a stag. Before 1508 he painted several altarpieces for the Castle Church at Wittenberg, competing with masters like Albrecht Dürer and Hans Burgkmair. He also painted nude subjects drawn from mythology and religion throughout his career. His workshop was large and highly productive; many of his compositions exist in multiple versions. After his death in 1553, his son Lucas Cranach the Younger and other workshop members continued producing versions of his designs for decades, extending his visual influence well beyond his lifetime.

Family, Lineage, and Lasting Legacy

Cranach's personal life wove into some of Germany's most prominent families. He married Barbara Brengbier, daughter of a Gotha burgher, who died at Wittenberg in 1540. He fathered two sons, both artists: Hans, whose life remains obscure and who died in Bologna in 1537, and Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515–1586), who carried the family workshop forward. Among his three daughters was Barbara, who married Christian Brück (Pontanus) and became an ancestor of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. His granddaughter married Polykarp Leyser the Elder, linking the family to a distinguished line of theologians. Born in Kronach in upper Franconia, probably in 1472, to a father named Hans Maler—whose surname simply denoted his profession as painter—Cranach trained likely under local south German masters. He lived from 1504 to 1520 in a house on the southwest corner of the Wittenberg marketplace. Widely regarded as the most successful German artist of his era, his legacy endures through both his surviving works and the dynastic artistic tradition his family established.