16th century · Wittenberg, Reformation and court workshop

Cranach adapts the Crucifixion to the time of the Reformation: clear outline, portraits of witnesses, Nordic landscapes and doctrinal signs make the message immediately readable.

Lucas Cranach the Elder works in Wittenberg at the heart of the political and religious transformations of the 16th century. Friend of Martin Luther and painter to the voters of Saxony, he takes up the Crucifixion in altarpieces, epitaphs, triptychs and devotional images. Versions intended for churches can incorporate donors, princes or theologians, while allegories of Law and Grace place the cross at the center of a visual demonstration of salvation. The flexible design, slender silhouettes and wooded landscapes maintain the identity of the workshop through numerous variations. The flexible design, slender silhouettes and wooded landscapes maintain the identity of the workshop through numerous variations. Rather than isolating Christ in a timeless drama, Cranach often connects Calvary to debates, communities and faces of his time. The selection "Crucifixions of Lucas Cranach the Elder" notably compares The Crucifixion and The Crucifixion. His reading favors figures.

In Cranach, the cross becomes at the same time sacred event, image of memory and visual argument of the Reformation.