Lucas Cranach’s workshop must have been a perpetually busy place. One can imagine it full of a prodigious energy and creative spirit that seemed almost a part of the physical building itself. With his sons and a team of dutiful assistants, Cranach’s workshop produced a phenomenal amount of art — so much so that, in this regard, it was simply unmatched. Even just the works of Cranach the Elder (1472 – 1553) and his son, Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515 – 1586), number some 1,500 pieces. Art was produced at an extraordinary rate.
For some, this was a source of criticism — how could quality art be produced at this kind of speed? But one wonders whether Cranach cared at all about this kind of remark. He was immensely successful, popular, and financially well off, and he was at the center of Wittenberg’s burgeoning world of the first half of the 16th century.
Indeed Lucas Cranach played a role in the Reformation that is, in some sense, nearly as pivotal as the man who started the whole cataclysm — Martin Luther. As DW’s documentary The Cranachs and Medieval Modern Art shows, Cranach — as well as his son — helped give the Reformation a physical look: images that brought to life the spirit of this religious epoch.
Featuring a small handful of various scholars, DW’s excellent documentary gives us a fascinating look at Cranach’s world and how the exceptional artist from Kronach came to establish himself as a vital figure of his day.
Regrettably, we know little about the early years of his life, but we do know that he traveled widely — with a formative stint in Italy — before eventually making his way to Wittenberg. It was there, in 1505, that Frederick the Wise put him on his payroll as court artist. For decades after he stayed exceptionally busy as he carried out a variety of roles, including those relating to the court as well as his own entrepreneurial endeavors .
Indeed, if there’s one thing that stands out most about Lucas Cranch, it’s the number of diverse roles he played: court painter, councilman, mayor, businessman, and interlocutor with some of the most influential people of the time. His role as court artist certainly helped this; it put him right in the middle of Frederick the Wise’s court, where his duties revolved around “document[ing] the splendor, the aspirations, and the importance of the ruling house of Saxony.”
But as important as these activities were, Cranach’s historical importance as an artist in the 16th century goes far beyond painting nobility. Cranach had the immense gift to take the ethos of the Reformation and make it visual. Among the dozens of Cranach paintings that capture the ground-breaking spiritual ideas of the time is his Wittenberg Altarpiece (1547).
The documentary showcases this extraordinary piece of bold and innovative art. It’s a large triptych in which “Cranach painted actual people of his time into the biblical action.” The scene of the Last Supper merges with the immediate present — with the vitality of the Reformation and its message; it shows Martin Luther at the table along with Jesus and his followers. Other reformers are pictured on the left and right panels. It is one of Lucas Cranach’s greatest works, and demonstrates why he played such a critical role in the Reformation.
Yet another facet of Cranach’s life was his seemingly innate, and savvy, ability to know how to prosper to the fullest in the business world of art. He ran his workshop with an incredibly firm hand; his myriad assistants produced work that was fully in line Cranach’s specific vision. As one scholar in the film puts it, “The Cranach workshop was a factory that had no place for individual style or an individual signature.” It’s precisely because of this that scholars sometimes have difficulty in firmly attributing works from the Cranach workshop to Lucas Cranach himself.
Another sign of his skills as an effective businessman was his uncanniness at knowing what people wanted as well as how to provide them with their demands as quickly as possible. Frames in his workshop — of all sizes — were always ready to be used; and a clever system of producing woodcuts allowed him to create different results while using as many of the same pieces as possible. As one scholar tells us, “There are prints with the same body, the same rendering, but with the head of Melanchthon, or with the head of the early reformer Jan Hus.” Cranach was not only an exceptionally gifted artist — he simply knew how to get things done.
His illustrious career came to an end only because the of inevitability of old age. For a man born in the 15th century, his 81 years of life were far more than most received.
Sadly, though, the final chapters of his life were marked, in part, by the ugly side of the Reformation: immense political and religious turmoil that festered into war. After his court employer was forced into exile, Cranach himself left Wittenberg and eventually moved into the house of his daughter.
But the legacy of Lucas Cranach is enormous. And thanks to this excellent documentary, more people will be acquainted with a man who, though far less well-known than his contemporary Michelangelo, changed the face of art while giving visual life to one of the most dramatic periods in Western history.
Spectatio 