Lucas Cranach the Elder
Also known as: Lucas Cranach der Ältere
Biography
Lucas Cranach the Elder, born in Kronach on 4 October 1472, was court painter to the Saxon electors in Wittenberg from 1505, ran the most productive painters' workshop in Germany under the sign of the winged serpent, served the town as Bürgermeister, and stood beside Martin Luther as witness at his wedding in 1525 and godfather to his first son in 1526. When Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous chose Weimar as his residence in 1552, the eighty-year-old painter came with him, set up a last workshop in the house on the market square that bears his name, and began the altarpiece for the town church that his son finished in 1555. He died in Weimar on 16 October 1553 and lies in the Cranach vault by the Jakobskirche.
Kronach 1472, Vienna 1503: the beginnings
Cranach was born in Kronach in Upper Franconia on 4 October 1472 and took his name from the town. Before 1500 he travelled as a journeyman through southern Germany and up the Danube to Vienna, where he is recorded in 1503 in the humanist circle of the university — the first place his work can be followed.
Wittenberg 1505: court painter to Friedrich the Wise, the winged serpent of 1508
In April 1505 Elector Friedrich the Wise took him into service as court painter in Wittenberg, and on 6 January 1508 granted him a coat of arms: a crowned serpent with bat's wings and a ring, the mark under which the workshop signed for the next half-century. Built on the model of Italian workshops and run with strict discipline, with numerous apprentices and journeymen, it produced an estimated five thousand paintings, among them a great number of portraits of the electors and of the reformers Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon. Cranach sat on the Wittenberg council from 1519 and was Bürgermeister in 1537, 1540 and until 1544.
1525–1526: witness at Luther's wedding, godfather to his son
In 1525 Cranach acted as go-between and witness at Luther's marriage to Katharina von Bora, and in 1526 as godfather to the reformer's first son, Johannes. His Luther as Junker Jörg of 1521 and the portraits that followed are the faces by which the Reformation is known, and the city of Weimar calls him what he was: an important companion of the Reformation.
1547–1552: Mühlberg, Augsburg, Innsbruck — following a captive prince
After the battle of Mühlberg in 1547 cost Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous his electoral title and his liberty, Cranach followed his lord three years later into captivity at Augsburg and in 1551 to Innsbruck. In 1552 he came home with him — not to Wittenberg, which had gone to the Albertine line, but to Weimar, which the prince chose as his new residence after the loss of the electoral district. The town chronicle records the two arrivals in one line.
Weimar, October 1552–1553: a last workshop on the market square
In October 1552 he moved into the house of his daughter Barbara on the Markt, the early Renaissance building known today as the Cranachhaus, and spent his last year there as court painter. He founded a workshop in the house and took on two pupils in the year before his death; in his painting room he worked on the three-winged altarpiece for the town church of St Peter and Paul, the work his son completed. The house holds the Theater im Gewölbe today.
16 October 1553: death in Weimar, the grave by the Jakobskirche, the altarpiece of 1555
Cranach died in Weimar on 16 October 1553 and was buried in the vault on the south side of the Jakobskirche that came to be called the Cranach vault — the painters' vault, in the town's usage, for the artists laid there after him. His original grave slab lay on the vault, was fixed to the church wall in 1767 and later moved into the town church for its protection; the stone at the Jakobskirche is a copy made after 1859. The altarpiece was finished in 1555: Christ on the cross, John the Baptist pointing up to him, Luther with the open Bible, and Cranach himself beside them, painted by his son. Whether the father began it, as the city and the parish tell it, or the son designed and painted it alone, as the Cranach research archive concludes, is an open question of scholarship.
The Cranachs in Weimar today
The altarpiece stands in the town church, the Herderkirche, and the Klassik Stiftung shows works by both Cranachs in the Renaissance hall of the Duchess Anna Amalia Library. The Cranachhaus on the Markt and the grave with its slab by the Jakobskirche complete the four Weimar addresses of the painter who gave the Reformation its faces.
Questions visitors ask
- Why did Lucas Cranach the Elder come to Weimar?
- He followed his prince. When Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous lost the electorate and chose Weimar as his residence in 1552, Cranach, his court painter and companion in captivity at Augsburg and Innsbruck, came with him in October 1552, aged eighty.
- Where did Cranach live in Weimar?
- In the house of his daughter Barbara on the market square, the early Renaissance building known as the Cranachhaus, where he set up a workshop, took on two pupils and worked on the altarpiece for the town church.
- Where is Cranach buried?
- In the Cranach vault on the south side of the Jakobskirche in Weimar, the town's oldest surviving burial ground. The original grave slab is kept in the town church; the stone at the Jakobskirche is a copy made after 1859.
- Did Cranach the Elder paint the Weimar altarpiece?
- The altarpiece in the town church was finished in 1555, two years after his death, by his son Lucas Cranach the Younger. The city and the parish say the father began it; the Cranach research archive dates it to 1552–1555 and attributes design and painting to the son alone. The question is open.
- What was Cranach's connection to Martin Luther?
- He was Luther's friend, the painter of his portraits, his go-between and witness at his wedding to Katharina von Bora in 1525, and godfather to his first son Johannes in 1526.
- Where can Cranach's paintings be seen in Weimar?
- In the altarpiece of the town church, the Herderkirche, and in the Renaissance hall of the Duchess Anna Amalia Library, where the Klassik Stiftung shows works by both Cranachs.
Notable Works & Achievements
The Weimar altarpiece in the town church of St Peter and Paul (1555, finished by his son)
Portraits of Martin Luther, including Luther as Junker Jörg (1521)
Portraits of the Saxon electors and of Philipp Melanchthon
Connected Places in Weimar
Markt, 99423 Weimar
He spent his last year on this square, in the house of his daughter Barbara — the Cranachhaus — from October 1552 until his death on 16 October 1553.
Platz der Demokratie 1, 99423 Weimar
The Klassik Stiftung shows works by both Cranachs in the library's Renaissance hall.
Markt 11/12, 99423 Weimar
He lived and worked in the left house from 1552 until his death in October 1553.
Herderplatz, 99423 Weimar
The altarpiece carries his portrait; he died in Weimar in 1553, and the research archive gives the finished work of 1555 to his son.
Am Rollplatz 4, 99423 Weimar
His grave is in the churchyard here, three years after he came to Weimar with the deposed elector.
Historical Context
He came to Weimar in 1552 with the deposed elector and spent his last year on the market square, dying here in October 1553.
For a hundred years Weimar is a Reformation town before it is anything else — and it becomes a capital by accident, because a prince who had lost everything else still had this place. The century leaves the town its market-square gables, an altarpiece the stewards rank among the main works of Reformation painting, and a court that never moved away again.
Read more about this period →Quick Facts
1472
1553
German
Events
Events
One Saturday night in May, 18:00 to midnight
The Cranach exhibition in the library's Rococo Hall is named as one of the night's draws.
Historical figures
Historical figures
1503–1554 • duke • elector
His court painter, who followed him to Weimar in 1552 and died on the market square a year later.[^stadt-weimar-chronik-1552]
1515–1586 • painter • printmaker
His father, whose workshop he ran from 1537 and led alone from 1550, whose Weimar altarpiece he finished in 1555 and whose portrait he painted into it.
1483–1546 • reformer • theologian • preacher
His friend and the painter of the Reformation's portraits, who came to Weimar with Johann Friedrich in 1552.
In Weimar's history
In Weimar's history
A defeated elector picked the town that was left to him, and Weimar stopped being provincial.
He came with the court and spent his last year on the market square.
Stages and venues
The Renaissance house at Markt 11/12 carries his name; he died in Weimar in 1553.
Lucas-Cranach-Haus, Markt 11/12, 99423 Weimar
The house above the vaults is named for him.