Lucas Cranach The Younger

Lucas Cranach the Younger was a leading German Renaissance painter. As the son of Lucas Cranach the Elder, he inherited his father’s flourishing workshop and continued his role in shaping the visual language of the Protestant Reformation.

Born in 1515 in Wittenberg, Cranach trained at his father’s studio, which served the court of the Saxon electors and maintained close ties with leading Reformers. From an early age, Cranach assisted in the production of portraits, altarpieces and prints, learning his father's artistic style. Amongst Cranach’s earliest works include two large panels about Hercules, painted for the Elector Maurice of Saxony in 1551.

Following his father’s retirement in 1552, Cranach assumed full control of the workshop. Under his direction, the Cranach studio remained one of the most productive artistic enterprises in Germany, and Cranach adopted his father’s artistic emblem of a winged serpent. The artist continued to supply portraits of Protestant leaders, including works of Martin Luther and other theologians. These images played a crucial role in defining the public face of the Reformation.

Cranach also upheld the workshop’s tradition of court portraiture and produced several paintings of members of the ruling Saxon house. Among his most notable oil paintings are those produced for the exiled John Frederick, former Elector of Saxony, in 1555.

The artist further sustained the production of religious and mythological subjects established by his father. Though it is often difficult to separate the works of Cranach the Younger from his father, in paintings such as The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist and Angels, he distinguishes himself through the landscape. Cranach rendered it with a more painterly freedom than his father did in similar works, with the artist painting the architectural details with a light, slightly opaque colouring. This painting was sold by Christie’s in 2019 for £791,250.

Alongside his artistic work, Cranach was an engaged civic figure in Wittenberg, serving as a council member and later as mayor. The artist died in 1586, though his stewardship of the Cranach workshop ensured the longevity of a visual tradition that defined German Renaissance art. He also influenced contemporary artists, with Picasso creating his Portrait of a Young Girl (1958) based on a postcard of a painting by Lucas Cranach the Younger.