Artist · 24 prints
Lucas Cranach the Elder Prints
About Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lucas Cranach the Elder (about 1472–1553) was a German painter and printmaker, named after his home town of Kronach in Upper Franconia, where he probably trained with his father. In 1505 he entered the service of the Electors of Saxony in Wittenberg and remained court painter to three successive electors until his death. He also served as burgomaster (mayor) of Wittenberg. He retired to Weimar in 1552 and died there on 16 October 1553.
Cranach ran a large and busy workshop, later carried on by his sons Hans and Lucas the Younger. From 1508 his pictures were signed with a winged serpent, an emblem granted by the elector. He painted altarpieces, court portraits and slender, elegant nudes such as his many images of Venus and Cupid from the 1520s and 1530s. He made many portraits of Martin Luther, beginning with an engraving in 1520, and woodcuts for Luther's German Bible. Lucas Cranach the Elder is remembered as the chief artist of the Protestant Reformation.
Lucas Cranach the Elder prints: reproductions of paintings by the German Renaissance painter Lucas Cranach the Elder, made between 1503 and about 1540. The collection includes Martin Luther (1527), Katharina von Bora, Wife of Martin Luther (1527), The Judgment of Paris (1528), Venus with Cupid Stealing Honey (1530) and Melancholy (1532).
This selection covers his main subjects: slender nudes from myth and the Bible, including Venus, Lucretia, Judith, and Adam and Eve; portraits of Saxon princes, princesses and Reformation figures; and a few larger scenes such as The Garden of Eden and Hunting near Hartenfels Castle. Many figures stand against plain black or green backgrounds, with red and gold dress.
The portraits suit studies, libraries and offices; the nudes and mythological scenes are better placed in a bedroom or private sitting room. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.
