This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| Please note: Artists not classified as American in our database may have limited biographical data
compared to the extensive information about American artists.
 Cranach
II was a painter and designer of woodcuts, and son of Lucas Cranach I.
His work was so closely modelled on that of his father that
distinguishing the late style of Lucas I from the early works of his son
remains in most cases hypothetical. Having first been his father’s
pupil and assistant, he remained in the workshop his entire career. His
responsibilities increased over the 1530s, especially after the death of
his older brother Hans in 1537. Lucas II became the de facto head of
the workshop in 1550, when his father left Wittenberg to join the
deposed Saxon elector John Frederick in Augsburg. On his father’s death
in 1553, he became sole proprietor and chief artist of this family
enterprise.
In 1541 he married Barbara Brück, the daughter of the
electoral chancellor, Gregor Brück. Widowed in 1550, he then married
Magdalene Schurff (d 1606), a niece of Melanchthon, the following year.
Lucas the younger also followed his father’s footsteps into high civic
office. From 1549 through 1568 he served on the Wittenberg city council,
rising first to chancellor and then to burgomaster. Although he
continued to receive many commissions from Saxon princes, unlike his
father he did not enjoy the advantages of a court appointment, since
John Frederick lost the electoral territory of Wittenberg in 1547, when
he and the League of Schmalkalden were defeated by Emperor Charles V at
the Battle of Mühlberg. Still, Lucas II remained one of the richest
citizens of the city, according to his taxable property in 1573.
Attributions to Lucas II from the 1530s and 1540s depend on
stylistic connections to his work from and after 1550, when he was in
sole charge of the workshop. The Portrait of a Nobleman and the Portrait of a Noblewoman
(1564; both Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), for example, bear the
familiar traits of the Saxon Cranach style but may be distinguished from
Lucas I's work by the degree of rosy complexions, lighter tonalities,
smooth but colouristically softened surfaces, sharp silhouettes and
frozen positions, which invite recognition of the same hand in the
portraits of Caspar von Minckwitz and Anna von Minckwitz (1543; both
Stuttgart). Increasingly these portraits emphasize social standing at
the expense of conveying individual character.
Opinions still remain divided, however, on whether the painting of Lucas Cranach the Elder
(1550; Florence, Uffizi) is a self-portrait by the 77-year-old father
or a likeness of the father by the son. A similar disagreement exists
over the attribution of the 15 vivid portrait drawings of aristocratic
sitters (c. 1540; Reims, Musee St-Denis); these tempera and oil studies
on paper provided models for the workshop to use many times over,
varying costume and format as required. Those who believe that all
fifteen portraits, not just three of them, are by Lucas II also
attribute to him the similar drawing of a Bearded Man (Berlin). Efforts to shift the attribution of the Fountain of Youth (1546; Berlin, Gemäldegallerie) from father to son (Hartlaub) are generally rejected on stylistic grounds.
Two signed panels with scenes of Hercules in Combat against an Army of Dwarfs
(1551; both Dresden, Gemäldegallerie, Alte Meister) count among Lucas
II’s earliest authenticated, independent works. Painted for the new
elector, Maurice of Saxony, they show the younger artist’s
predisposition for large paintings (each panel, c.1.9×1.6 m) and his
ready access to commissions from the rival, Albertine house of Saxony,
which received the electoral title after the defeat of the Cranach
family’s Protestant patron John Frederick. As a memorial to John
Frederick, however, and as a confession of the new faith, he painted a
large triptych (central panel, 3.6×3.11 m, 1555; Weimar, SS Peter and
Paul), showing the former Elector and his wife on one of the flanking
wings and their three sons on the other. In the centre panel Christ on
the Cross divides the foreground between Christ vanquishing the devil on
the left and John the Baptist standing under the cross in the company
of Lucas Cranach the elder and Martin Luther on the right. In the
absence of traditional religious painting for Protestant churches, Lucas
the younger continued to receive commissions for memorial pictures in
which the reformers appeared in biblical scenes, such as the Last Supper
(1565; Dessau-Mildensee, Parish Church), a memorial to Joachim of
Anhalt, in which Prince George of Anhalt appears alongside Luther and
Melanchthon, among others, in place of the Apostles.
Lucas II also continued to meet the demand for replications of
images made popular by his father, such as portraits of the reformers,
religious allegories and Classical themes. These were often small
panels, such as the Allegory of the Law and the Gospel (c. 1550;
private collection, see 1974–6 exh. cat., no. 355, fig.), based on the
prototype of Lucas I (c. 1530; Gotha, Schloss Friedenstein), or the Adam and Eve
(1549; private collection, see Friedländer and Rosenberg, 1978, no.
432), perhaps the earliest dated work by Lucas II. The moralizing and
pseudo-Classical theme of the Nymph of the Spring exists in no fewer
than 17 versions, of which at least one (New York, Metropolitan Museum
of Art) bears the traits of Lucas the younger’s hand.
The hand of the younger Lucas may also be seen in woodcut book
illustrations from as early as 1538 (1974–6 exh. cat., no. 277) and
certainly no later than the following year when Fabian von Auerswald’s Ringer Kunst
(Wittenberg, 1539) was published with its 85 illustrations of wrestling
positions plus the author’s portrait on the title-page. Lucas II also
contributed illustrations to two editions of Luther’s translation of the
Bible in 1541, one published by Hans Lufft in Wittenberg and the other
by Nikolaus Wolrab in Leipzig. His single-leaf woodcuts, like the
title-page of the Wittenberg Bible, include several Protestant
allegories. One of these (Geisberg, no. 653) from c. 1546 represents
Luther in a pulpit pointing on his right to a Protestant celebration of
the Eucharist and on his left to the Catholic clergy’s descent into
Hell’s maw. Unlike many polemical prints of the period, these by Lucas
are carefully designed and executed. He also published full- and
half-length woodcut portraits of reformers and Saxon princes, notable
for the precision and clarity of their draughtsmanship.
Cranach II is represented in the following collections: Hermitage
Museum, Saint Petersburg; Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan; Fine Arts
Museums of San Francisco; Kunsthistorisches Museum Databank, Vienna;
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania; Chi-Mei Museum, Taiwan; Dresden State Art Collections,
Dresden; State Museums of Berlin; Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid,
amongst others.
Source:
Sphinx Fine Art
http://www.sphinxfineart.com/Cranach-the-Younger-Lucas-
|
This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| Please note: Artists not classified as American in our database may have limited biographical data
compared to the extensive information about American artists.
 The following was written and submitted by Jean Ershler Schatz, artist and researcher from Laguna Woods, California: Lucas Cranach the Younger was born in 1515. He was a pupil of his father, Lucas Cranach the Elder. Very often he drew clothes and accessories on his father's pictures. In the mid-1530s he began to play an increasingly important role in his father's workshop, and took it over after his death. He was as successful as his father, though he never achieved his artistic greatness. Because he adopted his father's late style, there have been problems with distinguishing some of the works.
Many historians of art consider his works less emotional and spontaneous than those of his father. His best works include portraits and simple versions of allegorical and mythical scenes. He died in 1586.
Source:
From the internet, Olga's Gallery
|
| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
|
|
|
|
|
|