1472 -1553 · Wittenberg, court of Saxony and German Renaissance

Between Venus, melancholy, court portrait and Protestant pedagogy, Cranach invents images that are as seductive as they are immediately readable.

Lucas Cranach the Elder, born in 1472 in Kronach, became one of the main German painters and engravers of the early 16th century. After a decisive stay in Vienna, in 1505 he entered the service of the voters of Saxony in Wittenberg. This position gave him access to the princes, humanists and religious upheavals of his time. Friend of Martin Luther, Cranach produced his portraits and put his workshop at the service of the Reformation. Law and Gospel visually opposes condemnation by the Law and salvation by grace, offering a true painted synthesis of Lutheran thought. But his work is not reduced to religious propaganda. The Judgment of Paris, Melancholy, Adam and Eve and Venus with Cupid the honey thief unfolds a world of slender nudes, jewelry, animals and landscapes. Cupid's theme stung by bees reminds us that pleasure is accompanied by pain; the direct gaze of Venus involves the viewer in the lesson. Cranach organizes its production around drawings, patterns and variants which allow the workshop to respond quickly to orders without completely standardizing the works. The winged snake, granted as an emblem in 1508, guarantees this visual identity. The winged snake, granted as an emblem in 1508, guarantees this visual identity. The winged snake, granted as an emblem in 1508, guarantees this visual identity. Councilor and mayor of Wittenberg, loyal to the voter Jean-Frédéric, Cranach ended his life in Weimar in 1553. His workshop was continued by Lucas Cranach the Younger. The selection " Lucas Cranach the Elder notably compares The Judgment of Paris and Venus with Cupid the Honey Thief. His reading favors color.

Cranach seduces to instruct: the beauty of the nude, the brilliance of the jewel or the clarity of the symbol always lead to a moral question.