Cranach, Lucas the Elder (1472–1553)

A woodcarving by Lucas Cranach, showing the contrast between the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches. The Protestants, on the left, are described as following the true religion, by believing in salvation through Jesus Christ.

A woodcarving by Lucas Cranach of the church at Wittenberg. It was on the door of this church that Martin Luther posted his 95 theses criticizing the Roman Catholic Church in 1517.

German painter, etcher, and woodcut artist. A leading figure in the German Renaissance, he painted religious scenes, allegories (many featuring full-length nudes), and precise and polished portraits, such as Martin Luther (1521; Uffizi, Florence).

He was born in Kronach, Bavaria, and settled in Wittenberg in 1504 to work for the elector of Saxony. He is associated with the artists Albrecht Dürer and Albrecht Altdorfer and was a close friend of the religious reformer Martin Luther, whose portrait he painted several times. The Flight into Egypt (1504, Staatliche Museum, Berlin) is typical in its combination of religious subject and sensitive landscape. His work shows the effect of the Reformation in changes of artistic direction, religious compositions gradually giving place to portraits of the Lutheran circle and to allegories from classical mythology, in which the sensuality of women is freely expressed.

His second son, Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515–1586), succeeded him as director of the Cranach workshop.