_Lucas Cranach_ (German: 1472-1553).
Lucas Sunder (or possibly Müller), called Cranach from
his native place, was one of the chief of the German
painters,--after Dürer, the most famous artist of his day.
He was the close friend of Martin Luther, whose features
he several times represented. He may indeed be called the
painter of the German Reformation, and in his later works
the reformed doctrines receive symbolical illustration. The
influences of the Renaissance were also at work in his art,
as may be seen in his classical subjects. He was fond also
of drawing birds and animals, and he often depicted hunting
scenes. These he rendered with a realism of effect which won
the admiration of his princely employers. It was, however, as a
portrait-painter that he was chiefly employed. His engravings
were also very numerous. In the lower left-hand corner of the
picture before us, a crowned serpent will be noticed. This
was the arms granted to him in 1508 by the Elector of Saxony,
and it superseded his initials on all his pictures after that
date. Of Cranach's earlier years, little is known. In 1504 he
was established at Wittenburg as court-painter to Frederick
the Wise, a post which he occupied under the next two Electors
as well. He was a man of importance at Wittenburg, for he was
twice mayor of the town, and carried on there, besides large
art workshops, a book-printing business and an apothecary's
shop. He was also employed in diplomatic missions, and when the
Elector Frederick the Magnanimous was in captivity at Augsburg,
Cranach was instrumental in procuring his release from the
Emperor Charles V., whose portrait had in earlier years been
taken by our painter.
"His female portraits have a sort of naïve grace that renders them
very pleasing. There is one in the National Gallery, of a young girl
in elaborate costume, which is entirely characteristic" (Bryan's
_Dictionary of Painters_).