One of the most versatile artists of the German Renaissance and a close friend of Martin Luther, Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) is the archetypal painter of the Reformation. His activities as a painter, printmaker, and book illustrator reveal a distinctly individual style, and his skill in many different media helped him to create a highly successful workshop.

Financially more successful than his contemporary Albrecht Durer, Cranach's influence on the development of German painting was profound. His outstanding gifts are evident not only in his portrayal of landscape, animals, and the female nude, but also in devotional paintings and portraiture, in his later work as chief propagandist of the Protestant cause, and in his inventive treatments of biblical and mythological subjects.

Patron's Foreword

President's Foreword

Lenders to the Exhibition

Acknowledgements

Essays

The Smile of the Madonna: Lucas Cranach, a Serial Painter

'... that you paint with wonderful speed': Virtuosity and Efficiency in the Artistic Practice of Lucas Cranach the Elder

'The Italians, who usually pursue fame, proffer their hand to you': Lucas Cranach and the Art of Humanism

Cranach's Paintings of Charity in the Theological and Humanist Spirit of Luther and Melanchthon

With Cranach's Help: Counter-Reformation Art before the Council of Trent

Cranach's Contact with the Netherlands: Pointers from a Journey Observed

The Veil of Venus: A Metaphor of Seeing in Lucas Cranach the Elder

Catalogue

Prologue: A Landscape

Sturm und Drang in Vienna

Influences: The Netherlands and Italy

The Art of Being a Court Painter

The Pictorial World of the Protestants

The Tradition of the Sacred

The Observer of People

Models for Mass Production

Entertaining and Teaching

The Flowering of the Nude

The Painter's Sons: Hans and Lucas the Younger

Bibliography

Photographic Acknowledgements

Index