The Royal Academy’s current exhibition of the work of the German painter Lucas Cranach is a rare opportunity to study the career of an artist who became one of the best known propagandists for the Protestant Reformation
Very few details survive of Cranach’s early life. A near contemporary of Holbein, he was born in 1472 in Kronach, southern Germany – the town from which he took his name. It is known that by his late 20s he was working in Vienna, where he received commissions from distinguished scholars and humanists, whose recommendations would have advanced his career.
Court painter
From 1505, Cranach was appointed as Court Painter to the Elector of Saxony, Frederick the Wise, and his brother, known as John the Steadfast. Cranach was to remain in this post for the rest of his life, building up a highly efficient workshop practice, assisted by his sons Hans (who died in 1537) and Lucas the Younger. The court was based in Wittenberg, where the Elector had in 1502 founded a successful university. Luther arrived there in 1511, where he was appointed professor of Biblical Excegesis.
