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[[Image:Lucas Cranach d. Ä. 063.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Lucas Cranach the Elder at age 77 by Lucas Cranach the Younger ([[1550]]), at the [[Uffizi Gallery]], [[Florence]]]]
{{Infobox Military Conflict
'''Lucas Cranach the Elder''' (''Lucas Cranach der Ältere'', [[4 October]] [[1472]] – [[16 October]] [[1553]]) was a [[Germany|German]] [[Painting|painter]] and [[printmaker]] in [[woodcut]] and [[engraving]]. He was born '''Lucas Sunder''' at [[Kronach]] in upper [[Franconia]], and learned the art of drawing from his father.
| conflict = 1964 Gabon coup d'état
| image = [[Image:Gabon-CIA WFB Map.png|250px]]
| caption = Map of Gabon
| date = [[17 February]] – [[18 February]] [[1964]]
| place = [[Gabon]]
| result = Provisional government toppled;<br/> [[Léon M'ba]] reinstated as president
}}
The '''1964 Gabon coup d'état''' was staged between [[17 February]] and [[18 February]] [[1964]] by [[Gabon]]ese military officers who rose against [[President of Gabon|Gabonese President]] [[Léon M'ba]]. Before the [[coup d'état|coup]], Gabon was seen as one of the most politically stable countries in [[Africa]].<ref name=washingtonpost/> The coup resulted from M'ba's dissolution of the Gabonese legislature on [[21 January]] [[1964]], and during a takeover with few casualties 150 coup plotters arrested M'ba and a number of his government officials. Through [[Radio Libreville]], they asked the people of Gabon to remain calm and assured them that the country's pro-France foreign policy would remain unchanged. A provisional government was formed, and the coup's leaders installed Deputy [[Jean-Hilaire Aubame]], who was M'ba's primary political opponent and had been uninvolved in the coup, as president. Meanwhile, M'ba was sent to [[Lambaréné]], {{convert|250|km|mi|0}} from Libreville. There was no major uprising or reaction by the Gabonese people when they received word of the coup, which the military interpreted as a sign of approval.


It has not been possible to trace his descent or the name of his parents. His name of birth is differently known as Sünder, Sunder or Sonder. Some mention a Hans Maler and wife, Hübner, who died in 1491. Later, he took the name of his birth-place as his surname. We do not know how Cranach was trained, but it was probably with local south German masters, as with his contemporary [[Matthias Grünewald]], who worked at [[Bamberg]] and [[Aschaffenburg]]. Bamberg is the capital of the diocese in which Kronach lies.
After being informed of the coup by Gabonese Chief of Staff [[Omar Bongo|Albert-Bernard Bongo]], French President [[Charles de Gaulle]] resolved to restore the M'ba government, honoring a 1960 treaty signed between the deposed government and France when Gabon became independent. With the help of French [[paratrooper]]s, the provisional government was toppled during the night of [[19 February]] and M'ba was reinstated as president. Afterward, M'ba imprisoned more than 150 of his opponents, pledging "no pardon or pity" but rather "total punishment". Aubame was sentenced to 10&nbsp;years of hard labor and 10&nbsp;years of exile, a sentence that was later [[commutation of sentence|commuted]]. During this time, the ageing president became increasingly reclusive, opting to stay in his presidential palace under the protection of French troops. Within three years, M'ba was diagnosed with cancer; he died on [[28 November]] [[1967]].


According to Gunderam (the tutor of Cranach's children) Cranach demonstrated his talents as a painter before the close of the 15th century. His work then drew the attention of the [[Elector of Saxony]], who attached Cranach to his person in 1504. The records of [[Wittenberg]] confirm Gunderam's statement to this extent that Cranach's name appears for the first time in the public accounts on the [[24 June]] [[1504]], when he drew 50 gulden for the salary of half a year, as ''pictor ducalis''.
==Background and origins==
[[Image:Afrique 32.JPG|thumb|175px|left|Gabonese and French military officers, 1959]]


The only clue to Cranach's settlement previous to his Wittenberg appointment is afforded by the knowledge that he owned a house at [[Gotha (town)|Gotha]], and that Barbara Brengbier, his wife, was the daughter of a [[Bourgeoisie|burgher]] of that city and also born there, having died at [[Wittenberg]] on [[26 December]] [[1540]].
Gabon gained its independence from France on [[17 August]] [[1960]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Murison|2003|p=434}}</ref> The country had a relatively high [[standard of living]] and was considered one of the more stable countries in [[West Africa]], both politically and economically.<ref name=washingtonpost>{{citation|url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60B11FE3A5C147A93CBA81789D85F408685F9|title=Gabon's President Ousted by Bloodless Army Coup: Officer Group Seizes Mba -- Old Rival Reported Chosen as Successor|date=[[19 February]] [[1964]]|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|publisher=[[Reuters]]|page=p. 1|accessdate=[[7 September]] [[2008]]}}</ref> At the time of the coup, the country had an estimated [[US$]]200 average annual income<ref>{{citation|first=Ronald|last=Matthews|url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10F11F9395C15768FDDA90994DC405B868AF1D3|title=Forecast for Africa: More Plots, More Coups|date=[[10 April]] [[1966]]|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|page=p. 182|accessdate=[[18 September]] [[2008]]}}</ref> and was one of the few countries in Africa with a positive trade balance, with exports exceeding imports by 30 percent.<ref>{{Harvnb|Matthews|1966|p=118}}</ref> As of 1964, the country was among the largest producers of [[uranium]] and [[manganese]] in French Africa, which ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' suggested was one of the reasons for France's response to the coup.<ref name="time"/> It also had petroleum, iron, and logging interests stationed in Gabon.<ref name=Reed297/>


== Career ==
M'ba was also one of the most loyal allies to France in Africa, even after the country's independence.<ref name="time">{{citation|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,873821,00.html|title=De Gaulle to the Rescue|date=[[28 February]] [[1964]]|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|accessdate=[[7 September]] [[2008]]}}</ref> In fact, France maintained 600 paratroopers and an air force unit, which included Mirage V and Jaguar jet fighters, at the Camp de Gaulle military base until at least 1987, a warning to any Gabonese coup plotters.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reed|1987|p=284}}</ref> M'ba famously commented during a 1961 visit to France that "[a]ll Gabonese have two fatherlands: France and Gabon",{{ref|art4|[a]}} and Europeans enjoyed particularly friendly treatment under his regime.<ref name="Biteghe23">{{Harvnb|Biteghe|1990|pp=23–24}}</ref> French journalist [[Pierre Péan]] asserted that M'ba secretly tried to prevent Gabonese independence; instead, he lobbied for it to become an overseas territory of France.<ref>{{Harvnb|Péan|1983|pp=40-42}}</ref> He went so far as to say that "Gabon is an extreme case, verging on caricature, of [[neocolonialism]]."<ref>{{Harvnb|Péan|1983|p=20}}</ref>


The first evidence of his skill as an artist comes in a picture dated 1504. We find him active in several branches of his profession, sometimes a house-painter, more frequently producing portraits and altar-pieces, a designer on wood, an engraver of copper-plates, and draughtsman for the dies of the electoral [[mint (coin)|mint]].
M'ba aspired to establish Gabon as a democracy, which he believed was necessary to attract foreign investors. At the same time, he attempted to reconcile the imperatives of democracy with the necessity for a strong and coherent government.<ref name="Biteghe35">{{Harvnb|Biteghe|1990|p=35}}</ref> In practice, however, M'ba showed a weakness in attaining his goal—by this time he was known as "the old man",<ref name="leaderindependence">{{citation|url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10C13F63C5813778DDDA00A94D9415B878AF1D3|title=Leon Mba, President of Gabon Since Independence, Dies at 65|date=[[19 November]] [[1967]]|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|page=p. 47|accessdate=[[7 September]] [[2008]]}}</ref> or "the boss"—to have a high degree of authority.<ref name="Biteghe29">{{Harvnb|Biteghe|1990|p=29}}</ref> On [[21 February]] [[1961]], a new constitution was unanimously adopted,<ref name="Biteghe44">{{Harvnb|Biteghe|1990|p=44}}.</ref> providing for a "hyperpresidential" regime.<ref name="Biteghe46">{{Harvnb|Biteghe|1990|p=46}}</ref> M'ba now had full exutive powers: he could appoint ministers whose functions and responsibilities were decided by him; he could dissolve the National Assembly by choice or prolong its term beyond the normal five years; he could declare a [[state of emergency]] when he believed the need arised, though for this amendment he would have to consult the people via a referendum. This was, in fact, very similar to the constitution adopted in favor of [[Fulbert Youlou]] at roughly the same time.<ref name=RM123>{{Harvnb|Matthews|1966|p=123}}</ref> A report from the French secret service summarized the situation:


[[Image:Lucas Cranach the Elder Stag Hunt.jpg|thumb|''The Stag Hunt of the Elector [[Frederick the Wise]].'']]
{{quote|While wanting and sincerely believing in democracy, to the point of no charges irritating him more than being called a dictator, [M'ba] was given virtually all power and reduced parliament's role in a government which is already substandard.<ref name="Keese162">{{Harvnb|Keese|2004|p=162}}</ref>}}
Early in the days of his official employment he startled his master's courtiers by the realism with which he painted still life, game and antlers on the walls of the country palaces at [[Coburg]] and [[Locha]]; his pictures of deer and wild boar were considered striking, and the duke fostered his passion for this form of art by taking him out to the hunting field, where he sketched "his grace" running the stag, or Duke John sticking a boar.


Before 1508 he had painted several altar-pieces for the [[Wittenberg|Castle Church]] at Wittenberg in competition with [[Albrecht Dürer]], [[Hans Burgkmair]] and others; the duke and his brother John were portrayed in various attitudes and a number of the best woodcuts and copper-plates were published.
M'ba's chief political opponent had been Jean-Hilaire Aubame, a former protégé and his half-brother's foster son.<ref name="Bernault222">{{Harvnb|Bernault|1996|p=[http://books.google.com/books?id=mPKpk3bhb3cC&pg=PA222&sig=ACfU3U0gegxH8Mke4xeoqMbk5JUDUPIKnQ 222]}}</ref> M'ba was backed by the French forestry interests, while Aubame was supported by the [[Roman Catholic]] missions and the French administration.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reed|1987|p=293}}</ref> Aubame, a deputy of the opposition party ''l’Union démocratique et sociale gabonaise'' (UDSG) in the National Assembly, had few fundamental ideological differences with the M'ba-led ''Bloc Démocratique Gabonais'' (BDG), including advocating less economic dependence on France and faster "Africanization" of French political jobs.<ref name="gaboneseangered"/> However, the new constitution and the National Union (a political union they founded) suspended the quarrels between M'ba and Aubame from 1961 to 1963. Despite this, political unrest grew within the population,<ref>{{Harvnb|Biteghe|1990|p= 52}}</ref> and many students held demonstrations on the frequent dissolutions of the National Assembly and the general political attitude in the country.<ref>{{Harvnb|Biteghe|1990|p=49}}</ref> The president did not hesitate to enforce the law himself; with a [[sjambok|chicotte]], he whipped citizens who did not show respect for him, including passersby who "forgot" to salute him.<ref name="rvx">{{fr}} Pesnot, Patrick (producer) & Billoud, Michel (director) ([[10 March]] [[2007]]), [http://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/em/rendezvousavecx/index.php?id=52892 1964, le putsch raté contre Léon M'Ba président du Gabon] [radio], ''[[France Inter]]''. Retrieved on [[22 August]] [[2008]].</ref>


Great honour accrued to Cranach when he went in 1509 to the [[Netherlands]], and took sittings from the [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Maximilian]] and the boy who afterwards became [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]]. Until 1508 Cranach signed his works with the initials of his name. In that year the elector gave him the winged snake as a motto, and this motto, or [[Kleinod]], as it was called, superseded the initials on all his pictures after that date.
Aubame served as foreign minister under the coalition government, though in early 1963 he was dropped from the Cabinet for refusing to create a single-party Gabon.<ref name=Reed296>{{Harvnb|Reed|1987|p=296}}</ref> To oust Aubame from his legislative seat, M'ba appointed him President of the Supreme Court on [[25 February]],<ref name="Biteghe54">{{Harvnb|Biteghe|1990|p=54}}</ref> practically a powerless post.<ref name=Reed296/> M'ba supporters tried to pass a bill that declared that a [[member of parliament]] could only hold a single role in government.<ref name="leaderindependence"/> The president claimed that Aubame had resigned from the National Assembly, citing incompatibility with the functions of the assembly. Aubame, however, unexpectedly resigned from the Supreme Court on [[10 January]] [[1964]],<ref name=Reed296/> complicating matters for M'ba.<ref name="Biteghe55">{{Harvnb|Biteghe|1990|p=55}}</ref> In a fit of rage, M'ba dissolved the National Assembly on [[21 January]] [[1964]] and called for new elections to reduce the number of seats from 67 to 47, fueling opposition.<ref name="Biteghe59"/> ''[[The New York Times]]'' speculates that this was due to it not supporting M'ba in Aubame's removal.<ref name=washingtonpost/> The opposition announced its refusal to participate in elections that they did not consider fair.<ref name="Biteghe59">{{Harvnb|Biteghe|1990|p=59}}</ref>


[[Image:Luther46c.jpg|thumb|Martin Luther (1529, Uffizi)]]
==Planning==
[[Image:Omar Bongo crop.jpg|thumb|right|Bongo in 2004]]
Little is known of the planning of the coup. No demonstrations followed Mba's dissolution of the National Assembly, so the coup could be classified as simply a "palace coup".<ref name=Wallerstein78>{{Harvnb|Wallerstein|2005|p=78}}</ref> The 1964–1965 edition of the ''[[Adelphi Papers]]'' speculates that the continued presence of young French military officers in Gabon may have been an inspiration to the plotters of the coup.<ref>{{Harvnb|International Institute for Strategic Studies|1964|p=8}}</ref> Much of the 600-man Gabonese army had previously served in the French army prior to independence, where they were paid modestly. However, like much of the rest of the country, they were displeased by M'ba's actions against Aubame.<ref name=Reed297>{{Harvnb|Reed|1987|p=297}}</ref>


Somewhat later the duke conferred on him the monopoly of the sale of medicines at Wittenberg, and a printer's patent with exclusive privileges as to copyright in [[Bible]]s. Cranach's presses were used by [[Martin Luther]]. His chemist's shop was open for centuries, and only perished by fire in 1871.
U.S. Ambassador to Gabon [[Charles Darlington]] suggested that the coup plotters may have tried to imitate Colonel [[Christophe Soglo]].<ref name=DD131>{{Harvnb|Darlington|Darlington|1968|p=131}}</ref> Soglo, a commander in [[Dahomey]]'s 800-man army, had deposed President [[Hubert Maga]] in October 1963,<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,897004,00.html|title=Sounds in the Night|magazine= [[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=[[8 November]] [[1963]]|accessdate=[[11 October]] [[2008]]}}</ref> ruled for about a month, then resigning in favor of Dahomey's citizens.<ref name=DD131/> The plotters apparently did not consider French involvement, so therefore didn't take any additional steps to prevent it. They could have created protests to show public support,<ref name=DD132>{{Harvnb|Darlington|Darlington|1968|p=132}}</ref> although the spokesman for the coup plotters, [[Sub-Lieutenant]] Daniel Mbene, justified the coup by claiming in a broadcast that the army had to act to avoid the rash of "uncontrollable demonstrations that would have been difficult to halt".<ref name=Matthews115/>


Friendship united the painter with the [[Protestant Reformation|Protestant Reformers]] at a very early period; yet it is difficult to fix the time of his first acquaintance with Luther. The oldest reference to Cranach in the Reformer's correspondence dates from 1520. In a letter written from [[Worms, Germany|Worms]] in 1521, Luther calls him his gossip, warmly alluding to his "[[Gevatterin]]," the artist's wife. His first engraved portrait by Cranach represents an [[Augustinian]] friar, and is dated 1520. Five years later the friar dropped the cowl, and Cranach was present as "one of the council" at the betrothal festival of Luther and [[Katharina von Bora]], and later as godfather to their first child (Johannes, or Hans, born 1526).
Lietenant Valerie Essone only decided to participate on [[17 February]]. This was a crucial decision for he led the First Company of the Gabonese Army, the company of the other officers. Apparently at that moment he told his troops to perform average night maneuvers.<ref name=DD130/> That day, Gabonese chief of staff [[Omar Bongo|Albert Bernard (later Omar) Bongo]] informed President M'ba that the number of troops outside [[Libreville]] was unusually high. M'ba, however, did not think much of this anomaly.<ref name=frenchinvolvement>{{citation|url=http://www.acdis.uiuc.edu/research/OPs/Pederson/html/contents/sect5.html|title=French Involvement in Gabon|last=Pederson|first=Nicholas|date=May 2000|publisher=[[University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign]] |accessdate=[[9 August]] [[2008]]}}</ref>


The death at short intervals of the electors [[Friedrich III, Elector of Saxony|Frederick]] and [[John the Steadfast|John]] (1525 and 1532) brought no change in the prosperous situation of the painter; he remained a favourite with [[John Frederick I]], under whose administration he twice (1531 and 1540) filled the office of burgomaster of [[Wittenberg]].
==Coup==
But 1547 witnessed a remarkable change in these relations.
During the night of [[17 February]] and the early morning of [[18 February]] [[1964]], 150 members of the Gabonese military, [[gendarmerie]], and police, headed by Lieutenant Jacques Mombo and Valére Essone, seized the presidential palace.<ref name=insurgentsyield>{{citation|url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40815F73E5415738DDDA90A94DA405B848AF1D3|title=Gabon Insurgents Yield as France Rushes in Troops|last=Giniger|first=Henry|date=[[20 February]] [[1964]]|newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |accessdate=[[17 September]] [[2008]]}}</ref> The gendarmes on duty claimed that this was but a military exercise.<ref name=DD130>{{Harvnb|Darlington|Darlington|1968|p=130}}</ref> However, during the "exercise" the lieutenants dragged President M'ba from his bed at gunpoint.<ref name="time"/> Bongo heard this noise and telephoned President of the National Assembly [[Louis Bigmann]] to find out what had happened. Bigmann arrived at the presidential palace and asked the rebels what Bongo had asked him. At this point they opened the gates and arrested him too.<ref name=DD131/> The plotters subsequently arrested every member of the Gabonese cabinet except the respected technician [[André Gustave Anguilé]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Gardinier|1994|p=58}}</ref> Apparently, the plotters let him roam free in the hopes of him joining them, although before noon he asked to be arrested. [[Joseph N'Goua]], the Gabonese minister of foreign affairs, was able to tell the French Embassy of this before he was arrested.<ref name=DD131/>


John Frederick was taken prisoner at the [[Battle of Mühlberg]], and Wittenberg was subjected to the stress of siege. As Cranach wrote from his house at the corner of the marketplace to the grand-master [[Albert of Brandenburg]] at [[Königsberg]] to tell him of John Frederick's capture, he showed his attachment by saying, <blockquote>"I cannot conceal from your Grace that we have been robbed of our dear prince, who from his youth upwards has been a true prince to us, but God will help him out of prison, for the [[Kaiser]] is bold enough to revive the Papacy, which God will certainly not allow."</blockquote> During the siege Charles bethought him of Cranach, whom he remembered from his childhood and summoned him to his camp at [[Pistritz]]. Cranach came, reminded his majesty of his early sittings as a boy, and begged on his knees for kind treatment to the elector.
The insurgents, calling thgemselves a "revolutionary committee",<ref name=DD131/> spread themselves strategically across the Gabonese capital during the night. They shut down the airport and seized the post office and radio station. On Radio Libreville, the military announced that a coup had taken place and that they required "technical assistance".<ref name="Biteghe62">{{Harvnb|Biteghe|1990|p=62}}</ref> They issued radio statements every half hour promising that "public liberties will be restored and all political prisoners will be freed"<ref name="gabonregime">{{citation|url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/164576492.html?dids=164576492:164576492&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=FEB+19%2C+1964&author=&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc=Gabon+Regime+Ousted%3B+Military+Seizes+Power&pqatl=google|title=Gabon Regime Ousted; Military Seizes Power|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=[[19 February]] [[1964]]|page=p. C20|accessdate=[[8 September]] [[2008]]}}</ref><ref name="Matthews115">{{Harvnb|Matthews|1966|p=115}}</ref> and ordered the French not to interfere in the matter, claiming that it would be a violation of their sovereignty.<ref name="gaboneseangered">{{citation|url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10716F7395F137A8EDDAA0A94DA405B848AF1D3|title=Many Gabonese Angered By Paris; Intervention to Crush Coup Sets Off Controversy|first=Lloyd|last=Garrison|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=[[23 February]] [[1964]]|page=p. 7|accessdate=[[8 September]] [[2008]]}}</ref> In addition, they decreed the closing of schools and businesses.<ref name=Darlington335>{{Harvnb|Darlington|Darlington|1968|p=335}}</ref> M'ba acknowledged his defeat in a radio broadcast, in accordance with orders from his captors.<ref name="Matthews115"/> "D-Day is here, the injustices are beyond measure, these people are patient, but their patience has limits", he said. "It came to a boil."{{ref|art6|[b]}}<ref name="Biteghe62"/>


Three years afterwards, when all the dignitaries of the Empire met at [[Augsburg]] to receive commands from the emperor, and [[Titian]] came at Charles's bidding to paint [[Philip II of Spain|Philip of Spain]], John Frederick asked Cranach to visit the Swabian capital; and here for a few months he was numbered amongst the household of the captive elector, whom he afterwards accompanied home in 1552.
During these events, no gunshots were fired. The public did not react strongly, which, according to the military, was a sign of approval.<ref>{{Harvnb|Biteghe|1990|p=63}}</ref> A provisional government was formed, composed of civilian politicians from the UDSG and BDG such as Philippe N'dong, editor of Gabon's literary review ''Realites Gabonaises''; Dr. Eloi Chambrier, Gabon's only physician; Philippe Maury, a famous Gabonese actor; and civil servant [[Paul Gondjout]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Gardinier|1994|p=59}}.</ref> Mbene stated that the provisional government would not include any members of the M'ba government. He declared that Gabon's pro-French foreign policy would remain unchanged and that Mombo would supervise the government until the presidency was given to Aubame.<ref name="gabonregime"/><ref name="mastermind"/> The plotters were content to ensure security for civilians, urging them to remain calm and not hurt anyone.<ref name=Matthews115/> Most of them were junior officers, living in the army barracks. The senior officers did not intervene; instead, they stayed in their "pleasant" houses.<ref name=DD130/>


He died on the [[October 16|16th of October]] 1553 at [[Weimar, Germany|Weimar]], where the house in which he lived still stands in the marketplace. He is commemorated as an artist by the [[Lutheran Church]] on [[April 6]].
Aubame was unaware of the coup until the French ambassador to Gabon, Paul Cousseran, called him on the telephone roughly a half hour after sunrise. Cousseran, meanwhile, was awoken by the noisy streets and checked to see what was happening. Aubame replied that he was to find out why there was "no government", as Cousseran never directly mentioned a coup. However, about midway through the morning an automobile carrying the revolutionay committee arrived at Aubame's residence and drove him to the governmental offices, where he had been named president.<ref name=Matthews115/>


== Cranach's Art ==
Second Lietenant Ndo Edou gave instructions to transfer M'ba to [[Ndjolé]], Aubame's electoral stronghold. However, due to heavy rain, the deposed president and his captors took shelter in an unknown village. The next morning they decided to take him over the easier road to [[Lambarene]]. Several hours later, they returned to Libreville.<ref name=DD134>{{Harvnb|Darlington|Darlington|1968|p=134}}</ref>


The oldest extant picture by Cranach, the "Rest of the Virgin during the Flight into Egypt," marked with the initials L.C., and the date of 1504, is by far the most graceful creation of his pencil. The scene is laid on the margin of a forest of pines, and discloses the habits of a painter familiar with the mountain scenery of [[Thuringia]]. There is more of gloom in landscapes of a later time.
===French intervention===
French authorities first received information on the coup not from Cousseran but rather from Bongo, giving him some standing among them.<ref name="uiuc">{{citation|url=http://www.acdis.uiuc.edu/Research/OPs/Pederson/html/contents/sect6.html|title=French Intervention in the 1964 Coup In Gabon|last=Pederson|first=Nicholas|date=May 2000|publisher=[[University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign]] |accessdate=[[6 August]] [[2008]]}}</ref> President de Gaulle, upon advice from his chief adviser on African policy, [[Jacques Foccart]], decided that he would restore the legitimate government. This was in accordance with a 1960 treaty between Gabon and the French,<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Gabon-HISTORY.html|chapter=Gabon History|date=2007|title=Encyclopedia of the Nations|publisher=[[Thomson Gale]]|accessdate=[[6 August]] [[2008]]}}</ref> which was ironically signed by Aubame in his stint as Foreign Minister.<ref name=RM124>{{Harvnb|Matthews|1966|p=124}}</ref> Foccart, on the other hand, had only decided to launch the countercoup to protect the interests of the French petroleum group [[Elf Aquitaine|Elf]], which operated in Gabon and was led by a close friend of his.<ref name="mastermind">{{citation|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E02E4D81E38F933A15750C0A961958260|title=Jacques Foccart Dies at 83; Secret Mastermind in Africa |last=Whitney|first=Craig R.|date=[[20 March]] [[1997]]|accessdate=[[6 August]] [[2008]]|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> M'ba was also a close friend of his; David Yates reports that M'ba could call Foccart personally, and Foccart would meet with him "at a moment's notice".<ref>{{Harvnb|Yates|1996|p=110}}</ref> French commentators, however, claimed that if they did not intervene, they would be tempting other dissidents. France had refrained from intervening in recent coups in the [[French Congo]], [[Dahomey]], and [[Togo]], despite being opposed to all of them. However, the Gabon coup differed in that, they claimed, it lacked notable public support.<ref name="actiontaken">{{citation|title=French Action Taken to Halt More Coups|last=Root|first=Waverley|date=[[20 February]] [[1964]]|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|page=p. A34}}</ref> Following the restoration of M'ba's government in Gabon, the French intervened in African coups roughly every other year.<ref name="nyt">{{citation|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E0DB1039F931A15756C0A960958260|title=France's Army Keeps Grip in African Ex-Colonies|last=French|first=Howard W.|authorlink=Howard French|date=[[22 May]] [[1996]]|accessdate=[[6 August]] [[2008]]|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> In 1995, the French Minister for Foreign Assistance Jacques Godfrain explained that Paris "will intervene each time an elected democratic power is overthrown by a coup d'état if a military cooperation agreement exists".<ref name="nyt"/>


Cranach's art in its prime was doubtless influenced by causes which but slightly affected the art of the [[Italy|Italians]], but weighed with potent consequence on that of the [[Netherlands]] and Germany. The business of booksellers who sold woodcuts and engravings at fairs and markets in Germany naturally satisfied a craving which arose out of the paucity of wall paintings in churches and secular edifices. Drawing for woodcuts and engraving of [[copper]]plates became the occupation of artists of note, and the talents devoted in Italy to productions of the brush were here monopolized for designs on wood or on copper.
Shortly after de Gaulle and Foccart's meeting, French commanders Haulin and Royer were released at the request of the French Embassy.<ref name="resumesoffice"/> Intervention could not commence without a formal petition to the Head of State of Gabon. Since M'ba was held hostage, the French contacted the Vice President of Gabon, [[Paul-Marie Yembit]], who had not been arrested.<ref name="Biteghe19"/> At the time, Yembit was in a car with U.S. ambassador Charles Darlington<ref name=Yates112>{{Harvnb|Yates|1996|p=112}}</ref> travelling to N'Dende.<ref>{{Harvnb|Darlington|Darlington|p=126}}</ref> This was to officially open a school built by the [[Peace Corps]] nearby, in Yembit's birthplace of [[Moussambou]], and completing his electoral campaign.<ref name=uiuc/><ref name=RM125>{{Harvnb|Matthews|1966|p=125}}</ref> Therefore, they decided to compose a predated letter that Yembit would later sign, confirming their intervention. The sent this to him via a small airplane, since there were no road bridges in Gabon at the time and the only was to cross a river was on a ferry. Yembit did not come back to Libreville on the plane as would be expected, but rather at 8:00 [[West Africa Time|WAT]] on [[18 February]] to read a statement over Radio Libreville that was likely prepared by French officials.<ref name=RM125/> Yembit, however, claimed that he called for French intervention while the insurgent troops held M'ba hostage; this version of the story was quickly disputed by several diplomats on the scene, as several French troops had arrived before this alleged incident.<ref name="resumesoffice">{{citation|url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40A1EF73E5415738DDDA80A94DA405B848AF1D3|title=Gabon President Resumes Office: Mba, Restored by French, Vows 'Total Punishment' for All Who Aided Coup|last=Garrison|first=Lloyd|page=p. 1|date=[[21 February]] [[1964]]|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|accessdate=[[8 September]] [[2008]]}}</ref>


We have thus to account for the comparative unproductiveness as painters of [[Albrecht Dürer|Dürer]] and [[Hans Holbein the Younger|Holbein]], and at the same time to explain the shallowness apparent in many of the later works of Cranach; but we attribute to the same cause also the tendency in Cranach to neglect effective colour and light and shade for strong contrasts of flat tint.
Less than 24&nbsp;hours after de Gaulle had been notified, French paratroopers stationed in [[Dakar]] and [[Brazzaville]] under General [[René Cogny]]<ref name="time"/><ref>{{citation|last=Grundy|first=Kenneth W.|title=On Machiavelli and the Mercenaries|url= http://www.jstor.org/pss/159300|year=1968|date= October 1968|journal= The Journal of Modern African Studies|volume=6|number= 3|pages=295–310|issn=0022-278X|oclc=}} {{Subscription}}</ref> and a General Keragavat were notified that they were going to end the coup.<ref name=Reed297/> This had come even before the provinicial government was formed.<ref name="RM116">{{Harvnb|Matthews|1966|p=116}}</ref> Maurice Robert and Guy Ponsaille, who were among a group Foccart convened to discuss the French intervention, were part of the paratrooper unit. Receiving Foccart's orders to "normalize" the situation by [[19 February]] or the next day at the latest,<ref name=Yates112/> at 10:50&nbsp;[[West Africa Time|WAT]] on [[18 February]], the first 50&nbsp;troops landed at the [[Libreville International Airport]].<ref name="time"/><ref name="uiuc"/> The rebels closed the airport but failed to establish obstacles, allowing the French troops to land unharmed,<ref name="actiontaken"/> albeit during a large storm.<ref name=Darlington133>{{Harvnb|Darlington|Darlington|1968|p=133}}</ref> Throughout that day, more than 600&nbsp;paratroopers arrived at the airport.<ref name="uiuc"/>
[[Image:AdamEveParadiseCranach.jpg|thumb|250px|Adam & Eve woodcut]]


Constant attention to contour and to black and white appears to have affected his sight, and caused those curious transitions of pallid light into inky grey which often characterize his studies of flesh; whilst outlining of form in black became a natural substitute for modelling and [[chiaroscuro]]. There are, no doubt, some few pictures by Cranach in which the flesh-tints display brightness and enamelled surface, but they are quite exceptional.
Sweeping through Libreville unopposed, the troops easily captured the provincial council, though they met resistance at the Baraka military base in Lambaréné when they attacked at daylight.<ref name="time"/><ref name="uiuc"/><ref name=Darlington133/> Upon learning of the impending attack, Aubame called Cousseran and asked him what had been going on. Cousseran dodged answering the question and requested that Aubame release M'ba uninjured. After receiving the false assurance from the ambassador that the French government had no intention of restoring M'ba to power, Aubame sent out a military officer to the countryside to find the deposed president.<ref name="RM117">{{Harvnb|Matthews|1966|p=117}}</ref> M'ba was moved to a small village near the [[Albert Schweitzer Hospital]].<ref name="time"/> At dawn on [[19 February]], [[French Air Force]] planes [[strafing|strafed]] the rebels at Baraka, while the [[French Army]] attacked the insurgents with [[machine gun]] fire and [[mortar (weapon)|mortars]].<ref name="resumesoffice"/> The rebels at the military base promptly surrendered once their ammunition supply ran out, and their commander, Lieutenant Ndo Edou, was executed.<ref name="RM117"/> Later, the French army managed to break through the gate to the village where M'ba was held and rescued the deposed president.<ref name="time"/>


As a composer Cranach was not greatly gifted. His ideal of the human shape was low; but he showed some freshness in the delineation of incident, though he not unfrequently bordered on coarseness. His copper-plates and woodcuts are certainly the best outcome of his art; and the earlier they are in date the more conspicuous is their power. Striking evidence of this is the "St Christopher" of 1506, or the plate of "Elector Frederick praying before the [[The Madonna|Madonna]]" (1509).
Before the end of the day, the French troops surrounded all of Libreville's public buildings. Shortly thereafter, Radio Libreville announced the surrender of the rebel forces.<ref name="RM117"/> Over the course of the operation, one French soldier were killed and 18 died on the Gabonese side.<ref name="resumesoffice"/> Unofficial sources said two French soldiers and 25 insurgents were killed, with more than 40&nbsp;Gabonese and four French troops were wounded.<ref name="resumesoffice"/> The number of civilian casualties was unknown but numerous, as the straw roofs on their homes were not a good protector against aerial bullets.<ref name=Darlington133/>


It is curious to watch the changes which mark the development of his instincts as an artist during the struggles of the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]]. At first we find him painting Madonnas. His first woodcut (1505) represents the Virgin and three saints in prayer before a [[crucifix]]. Later on he composes the marriage of [[Catherine of Alexandria|St Catherine]], a series of [[martyr]]doms, and scenes from the [[Passion (Christianity)|Passion]].
==Aftermath==
[[Image:Chancery.jpg|thumb|left|The United States Embassy in Libreville]]
France's intervention in the coup was openly applauded by the [[Central African Republic]], [[Chad]], [[Cote d'Ivoire]], the [[Malagasy Republic]], [[Niger]], and [[Republic of Upper Volta|Upper Volta]]. In fact, France was barely criticised at all in Africa, other than a mild response by Dahomey<ref name=Wallerstein78/> and one by the [[Democratic Republic of Congo]].<ref name=RM125/> The matter was not discussed at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers of the [[OAU]], held on [[24 February]]–[[29 February]] in [[Lagos]]. The revolutionary movement in French Africa immediately retrogressed following the coup.<ref name=Wallerstein78/>


After 1517 he illustrates occasionally the old Gospel themes, but he also gives expression to some of the thoughts of the Reformers. In a picture of 1518 at [[Leipzig]], where a dying man offers "his soul to God, his body to earth, and his worldly goods to his relations," the soul rises to meet the [[Trinity]] in heaven, and salvation is clearly shown to depend on faith and not on good works.
M'ba was returned to Libreville on [[21 February]].<ref name=nopardonpity>{{citation|url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/164580052.html?dids=164580052:164580052&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=FEB+21%2C+1964&author=By+Waverley+Root+The+Washington+Post+Foreign+Service&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc='No+Pity%2C+No+Pardon%2C'+Gabon+Rebels+Warned&pqatl=google|title="No Pity, No Pardon," Gabon Rebels Warned|first=Waverley|last=Root|date=[[21 February]] [[1964]]|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|page=p. A34|accessdate=[[8 September]] [[2008]]}}</ref> Shortly after his arrival, the 10:00 PM curfew<ref name="gunmenrake"/> that had been imposed by the French was lifted, and some stores were reopened.<ref name="resumesoffice"/> Squads of officials, known as "les gorilles", travelled through Libreville and arrested any suspected M'ba opposers.<ref>{{Harvnb|Yates|1996|pp=112-113}}</ref> After his reinstatement, M'ba refused to believe that the coup was directed against his regime,<ref name="Biteghe100">{{Harvnb|Biteghe|1990|p=100}}</ref> instead considering it to be a conspiracy against the state.<ref name=Biteghe92/>


Again [[sin]] and [[divine grace|grace]] become a familiar subject of pictorial delineation. [[Adam (Bible)|Adam]] is observed sitting between [[John the Baptist]] and a prophet at the foot of a tree. To the left God produces the tables of the law, [[Adam and Eve]] partake of the forbidden fruit,
On [[1 March]],<ref name=Reed298/> however, anti-government demonstrations began, with protesters shouting "Léon M'ba, président des Français!" ("Léon M'ba, President of the French!") and calling for the end of the "dictatorship".<ref name=Biteghe92>{{Harvnb|Biteghe|1990|p=92}}</ref> Originating in Libreville, these demonstrations spread to [[Port-Gentil]] and [[N'Dende]] and lasted into the summer.<ref name=Reed298>{{Harvnb|Reed|1987|p=298}}</ref> When 1,000 pro-government demonstrators responded by shouting "Long Live Léon M'ba" outside the presidential palace, they were attacked by dissidents.<ref name= "riotingputdown">{{citation|url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0912FC395415738DDDAA0894DB405B848AF1D3 |title= Street Rioting in Gabon is Reported Put Down|date=[[3 March]] [[1964]]|newspaper= [[The New York Times]]|publisher=[[Associated Press]]|pages=p. 6|accessdate=[[8 September]] [[2008]]}}</ref> Amoung the pro-government demonstrators were an opposition member, Martine Oyane, who had been forcefully undressed following her arrest, beaten by the police, paraded naked throughout Libreville, and forced to shout "Long Live Léon M'ba".<ref>{{Harvnb|Matthews|1966|p=130}}.</ref> At the height of these demonstrations, 3,000 to 4,000 Gabonese protested throughout central Libreville.<ref name="tenseriots">{{citation|url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40813FC355E147A93C4A91788D85F408685F9|title=Gabonese Capital Tense After Riots|first=Lloyd|last=Garrison|date=[[6 March]] [[1964]]|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|page=9|accessdate=[[8 September]] [[2008]]}}</ref> Protesters also took their anger out against the French in Gabon, stoning more than 30 cars belonging to Frenchmen and chanting "Go home, go home!"<ref name="bitterness">{{citation|url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70711FF3A5C147A93C3A81788D85F408685F9|title=French-African Bitterness Is Increasing in Gabon|last=Garrison|first=Lloyd|date=[[11 March]] [[1964]]|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|pages=p. 15|accessdate=[[7 September]] [[2008]]}}</ref><ref name="americanscore"/> This rioting was so intense that M'ba announced that whoever went to work would not be paid. The French reacted to these incidents by swinging rifle butts and throwing grenades. The crowds responded by throwing bottles and stones, though they were put down soon after.<ref name="tenseriots"/> There were no reports of injured protesters, despite orders to the Gabonese police that they fire at protesters on sight.<ref name="riotingputdown"/>
the brazen serpent is reared aloft, and punishment supervenes in the shape of death and the realm of [[Satan]]. To the right, the Conception, Crucifixion and [[Death and Resurrection of Jesus|Resurrection]] symbolize redemption, and this is duly impressed on Adam by [[John the Baptist]], who points to the sacrifice of the crucified Saviour. There are two examples of this composition in the galleries of [[Gotha]] and [[Prague]], both of them dated 1529.


One of the latest pictures with which the name of Cranach is connected is the altarpiece which Cranach's son completed in 1555, and which is now (''1911'') in the [[Stadtkirche]] (city church) at [[Weimar]]. It represents Christ in two forms, to the left trampling on Death and Satan, to the right crucified, with blood flowing from the lance wound. John the Baptist points to the suffering Christ, whilst the blood-stream falls on the head of Cranach, and Luther reads from his book the words, "The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin."
Some Gabonese mistakenly identified the United States as a co-conspirator in the coup.<ref name="election">{{citation|url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/197659472.html?dids=197659472:197659472&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=APR+08%2C+1964&author=By+Russell+Warren+Howe+The+Washington+Post+Foreign+Service&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc=Election+Sunday+to+Test+French+'Counter-Coup'+in+Gabon&pqatl=google|title=Election Sunday to Test French "Counter-Coup" in Gabon|last=Howe|first=Russell Warren|date=[[7 April]] [[1964]]|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|pages=p. D7|accessdate=[[8 September]] [[2008]]}}</ref> ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' asserted that French officials helped spread the rumor of American involvement in the coup.<ref name="sterility">{{citation|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,940365,00.html |title=Sure Cure for Sterility|date=[[28 March]] [[1964]]|accessdate=[[10 August]] [[2008]]|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]}}</ref> After William F. Courtney, deputy chief of the United States Embassy, received a call from a man identifying himself as DuPont and threatening an imminent attack, a small bomb exploded outside the embassy. The explosion, which occurred at a time when the building was closed and locked on [[March 5]], resulted in damage to the embassy sign and the cracking of two windows.<ref name="americanscore">{{citation|url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50A12FD395415738DDDAE0894DB405B848AF1D3|title=Americans Score French in Gabon|date=[[7 March]] [[1964]]|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|page=3|accessdate=[[7 September]] [[2008]]}}</ref> Following the bombing, French Gabonese made more threatening phone calls to the embassy.<ref name="bitterness"/> A second bomb exploded at the embassy two nights later, causing no damage. A drive-by shooting, during which at least five rounds of [[buckshot]] were fired from a 12-gauge automatic shotgun, riddled the second story windows with over 30 holes. Two Gabonese policemen were assigned to protect the building, and M'ba ordered an investigation into the bombings.<ref name="gunmenrake">{{citation|url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0916FD355E147A93C2A81788D85F408685F9 |title=Gunmen in Gabon Rake U.S. Mission: Whites Again Bomb Building in Former French State -- Nobody Is Injured|last=Garrison|first=Lloyd|date=[[10 March]] [[1964]]|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|page=1–5|accessdate=[[8 September]] [[2008]]}}</ref> He denounced the allegations against Americans, saying:


Cranach sometimes composed Gospel subjects with feeling and dignity. "The Woman taken in Adultery" at Munich is a favourable specimen of his skill, and various repetitions of Christ receiving little children show the kindliness of his disposition.
{{quote|Nothing permits to determine that the United States played a role in the recent events. However, relations of friendship existing between members of the United States Embassy and some politicians who participated in the rebellion could have given this impression to some, an impression which I do not share.<ref>{{citation|url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30915F9395415738DDDAE0994DB405B848AF1D3|title= Gabon Chief Clears U.S. of Role in Plot|date=[[16 March]] [[1964]]|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|publisher=[[Associated Press]]|page=16|accessdate=[[8 September]] [[2008]]}}</ref>}}
[[Image:Lucas Cranach d. Ä. 052.jpg|thumb|right|300px|''Portrait of a Saxon Princess'' by Lucas Cranach the Elder]]


But he was not exclusively a religious painter. He was equally successful, and often comically naïve, in mythological scenes, as where [[Cupid]], who has stolen a honeycomb, complains to [[Venus (goddess)|Venus]] that he has been stung by a [[bee]] (Weimar, 1530; Berlin, 1534), or where [[Heracles|Hercules]] sits at the spinning-wheel mocked by [[Omphale]] and her maids.
Despite these incidents, legislative elections planned before the coup were held in April&nbsp;1964.<ref>{{citation|url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30914FF3A5C147A93C7AB1789D85F408685F9 |title= Mba Dissolves His Cabinet And Again Delays Election|date=[[25 February]] [[1964]]|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|publisher=[[Associated Press]]|page=3|accessdate=[[18 September]] [[2008]]}}</ref> They were originally to be held on [[23 February]],<ref>{{Harvnb|Matthews|1966|p=123}}</ref> though he dissolved the National Assembly and rescheduled them for [[12 April]]. Upon insistence of the French, M'ba allowed opposition candidates to run, which it claimed was the main reason for starting the coup in the first place.<ref name="resumesoffice"/> However, their leaders were barred from participating because of their involvement in the coup,<ref>{{Harvnb|Biteghe|1990|p=94}}</ref> and known anti-Mba organizers were deported to remote parts of the country.<ref name="election"/> In addition, M'ba was known to have bribed voters with banknotes.<ref>{{citation|url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40D16F8385B1B728DDDAA0994DC405B848AF1D3|title=French Stand Guard While Gabon Votes|page=p. 7|date=[[12 April]] [[1964]]|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|publisher=[[Associated Press]]|accessdate=[[23 September]] [[2008]]}}</ref>


Humour and pathos are combined at times with strong effect in pictures such as the "Jealousy" (Augsburg, 1527; Vienna, 1530), where women and children are huddled into telling groups as they watch the strife of men wildly fighting around them.
France closely followed the election, deporting a [[Peace Corps]] teacher.<ref name="election"/> The UDSG disappeared from the political scene, and M'ba's opposition was composed of parties that lacked national focus and maintained only regional or pro-democracy platforms.<ref name="Biteghe96">{{Harvnb|Biteghe|1990|p=96}}</ref> Nevertheless, the opposition garnered 46% of the vote and 16 of 47 seats in the assembly, while the BDG received 54% of the vote and 31 seats.<ref name="Biteghe96"/> The opposition disputed this, and held strikes across the country, though these did not have a sizable impact on business.<ref>{{citation|url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00D1EF83A5C147A93C4A8178FD85F408685F9|title=Troops Patrolling Capital of Gabon to Keep Order|date=[[16 April]] [[1964]]|publisher=[[Associated Press]]|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|page=p. 45|accessdate=[[8 September]] [[2008]]}}</ref>


Very realistic must have been a lost canvas of 1545, in which hares were catching and roasting sportsmen. In 1546, possibly under Italian influence, Cranach composed the "Fons Juventutis" ("[[Fountain of Youth]]") of the Berlin Gallery, executed by his son, a picture in which [[hag]]s are seen entering a [[Renaissance]] fountain, and are received as they issue from it with all the charms of youth by [[knight]]s and pages.
That August, a trial of the military rebels and provisional government was opened in [[Lambarene]].<ref name=Reed298>{{Harvnb|Reed|1987|p=298}}.</ref> A "state of precations" was imposed, which decreed that local government kept surveillance on suspected troublemakers and, if necessary, order curfew, while special permits were required to travel through the town. The trial was held in a school building overlooking the [[Ogooue River]],<ref name=RM127>{{Harvnb|Matthews|1966|p=127}}</ref> which was near [[Albert Schweitzer]]'s [[Albert Schweitzer Hospital|hospital]]. Space at the hearing was limited, so members of the public were disallowed from attending. Permits were required to attend the trial, and family members were restricted to one permit each. Press coverage was limited, and journalists were allowed only if they represented a high-profile news agency. In addition, there were restrictions on the defence of the accused.<ref name=RM128>{{Harvnb|Matthews|1966|p=128}}.</ref>


Cranach's chief occupation was that of portrait painting, and we are indebted to him chiefly for the preservation of the features of all the German Reformers and their princely adherents. He painted not only [[Martin Luther]] himself but also Luther's wife, mother and father (see gallery below). But he sometimes condescended to depict such noted followers of the papacy as [[Albert of Brandenburg]], archbishop elector of [[Mainz]], [[Anthony Granvelle]] and the [[Duke of Alva]].
The prosecution called 64 seperate witnesses.<ref name=RM128/> Essone, Mbene, and Aubame claimed that their involvement in the coup was due to a lack of development in the Gabonese army. Judge Leon Auge, the judge in the case, said that if "that is the only reason for your coup d'etat, you deserve a severe penalty."<ref>{{citation|url= http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/181183942.html?dids=181183942:181183942&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=SEP+01%2C+1964&author=&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc=Coup+Planners+Blame+Army+Lag&pqatl=google |title= Coup Planners Blame Army Lag|date=[[31 August]] [[1964]]|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|publisher=[[Reuters]]|page=A1|accessdate=[[18 September]] [[2008]]}}</ref> Essone said that almost all Gabonese military officers knew of an imminent coup beforehand, while Aubame affirmed his position that he did not participate in its planning. According to him, he formed the provisional government in a constitutional manner, and at the request of some "[[putschists]]". He reasoned that the French intervention was effectivaly an illegal act of interference, an assertion which Gondjout and the former education minister, [[Jean Mare Ekoh]], shared. The Gabonese actor said that it should be the French troops being tried, not he and his comrades<ref name=RM128/>: "If we'd been able to put up a few more Gabonese soldiers against the French, we'd have won&nbsp;— and we shouldn't be here today."<ref name=RM129>{{Harvnb|Matthews|1966|p=129}}.</ref>


A dozen likenesses of [[Frederick III, Elector of Saxony|Frederick III]] and his brother John are found to bear the date of 1532. It is characteristic of Cranach's readiness, and a proof that he possessed ample material for mechanical reproduction, that he received payment at Wittenberg in 1533 for "sixty pairs of portraits of the elector and his brother" in one day. Amongst existing likenesses we should notice as the best that of Albert, elector of Mainz, in the [[Berlin Museum]], and that of John, elector of Saxony, at Dresden.
On [[9 September]], without consulting M'ba, Leon Auge handed down a verdict which acquitted both Ekoh and Gondjout; although the charges carried the death sentence as a maximum. Aubame was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor and 10 years of exile on a remote island off [[Settecama]], {{convert|100|mi|km|0}} down the coast of Gabon, as were most criminals of the case.<ref name="americanscore"/><ref name=RM129/> He was not particularly popular during his political career, though according to ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', his arrest "ballooned him to heroic proportions in the eyes of the aroused public".<ref name="sterility"/> While serving his 10&nbsp;years of labor, he was beaten regularly by prison guards. Besides Aubame, M'ba imprisoned more than 150 of his opponents,<ref name="Yates113">{{Harvnb|Yates|1996|p=113}}</ref> most of whom were sentenced to 20&nbsp;years of hard labor. These included the two officers and Aubame's nephew, [[Pierre Eyeguet]], a former ambassador to the [[United Kingdom]].<ref>{{citation|url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F3071FFD355415738DDDA90994D1405B848AF1D3 |title=Gabon Convicts 17 in February's Coup|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|publisher=[[Reuters]]|date=[[10 September]] [[1964]]|accessdate=[[28 September]] [[2008]]}}</ref> The actor and the doctor were given 10 years of imprisonment each.<ref name="uiuc"/> While appealing for peace on [[18 February]],<ref name="riotingputdown"/> he pledged "no pardon or pity" to his enemies, but rather "total punishment".<ref name="time"/>


Cranach died at [[Weimar]] and had three sons, all artists: [[John Lucas Cranach]], who died at [[Bologna]] in 1536; [[Hans Cranach]], whose life is obscure; and [[Lucas Cranach the younger|Lucas]], born in 1515, who died in 1586. He also had a daughter, Barbara Cranach, who died in 1569, married to Christian Brück (Pontanus), ancestors of [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]].
Two years after the coup there was still open repression of dissent in Gabon.<ref name=Reed298/> Following these events M'ba became increasingly reclusive, staying in his presidential palace protected by French troops known as the "Clan des Gabonais".<ref name="Yates114">{{Harvnb|Yates|1996|p=114}}</ref> Not even Yembit was close to him, but Foccart's friends Ponsaille and Robert "were never far" from M'ba, according to Pean, and provided the aging president with counseling and advice.<ref name="Yates113"/> M'ba was, however, still convinced of his popularity.<ref name="bitterness"/> Three years later, M'ba was diagnosed with cancer, and he died on [[28 November]] [[1967]].<ref name=leaderindependence/><ref>{{Harvnb|Reed|1987|p=283}}</ref> After M'ba's death, French-supported Bongo<ref>{{Harvnb|Reed|1987|p=288}}</ref> succeeded him as president, and released Aubame in 1972.<ref name="Yates117">{{Harvnb|Yates|1996|p=117}}</ref>


== Gallery of Lucas Cranach the Elder's Works ==
==Footnotes==
<center>
===Notes===
<gallery>
{{refbegin}}
Image:CranachtheElderRestontheFlighttoEgypt.jpg|"Rest of the Virgin during [[The Flight into Egypt]]"
* [a] {{note|art4}} "Tout Gabonais a deux patries : la France et le Gabon."
Image:Lucas Cranach d. Ä. 052.jpg|Portrait of a young [[Saxony|Saxon]] Princess
* [b] {{note|art6}} "Le jour J est arrivé, les injustices ont dépassé la mesure, ce peuple est patient, mais sa patience a des limites... il est arrivé à bout."
Image:LucasCranachtheElderCuspinian.jpg|[[Johannes Cuspinian]]
{{refend}}
Image:MartinLuthersFather.jpg|[[Martin Luther]]'s Father
Image:MartinLuthersMother.jpg|[[Martin Luther]]'s Mother
Image:Luther46c.jpg|[[Martin Luther]]
Image:KatherineVonBora.jpg|[[Katherine Von Bora]], wife of Martin Luther
Image:PhilippMelanchthon.jpg|[[Philipp Melanchthon]]
Image:CranFall.jpg|[[The Fall of Man]]
Image:Water Nymph Resting-Lucas Cranach-1530.jpg|Water [[Nymph]] resting
Image:Lucas Cranach d. Ä. 044.jpg| [[John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony]]
Image:Judith mit dem Haupt des Holofernes.jpg|[[Judith]] with the head of [[Holofernes]]
Image:Cranachdä.jpg|The [[Crucifixion]]
Image:ChristWashingFeet.JPG| Christus
Image:PopeKissing Feet.JPG|Antichristus
Image:PapalPolitics2.JPG|Antichristus
Image:PapalPolitics.JPG|Antichristus
Image:Antichrist1.JPG|Antichristus
Image:Lucas Cranch the Elder Venus Standing in a Landscape.jpg|"[[Venus]] Standing in a Landscape"
Image:Werwolf.png|[[Werewolf]], 1512
</gallery>
</center>


===References===
==References==
* Posse, Hans (1942) ''Lucas Cranach d. ä.'' A. Schroll & Co., Vienna [http://worldcat.org/oclc/773554 OCLC 773554] in German
{{reflist|2}}
* Descargues, Pierre (1960) ''Lucas Cranach the Elder'' (translated from the French by Helen Ramsbotham) Oldbourne Press, London, [http://worldcat.org/oclc/434642 OCLC 434642]
* Ruhmer, Eberhard (1963) ''Cranach'' (translated from the German by Joan Spencer) Phaidon, London, [http://worldcat.org/oclc/1107030 OCLC 1107030]
* Friedländer, Max J.and Rosenberg, Jakob (1978) ''The Paintings of Lucas Cranach'' Tabard Press, New York ISBN 0-914427-31-8
* Schade, Werner (1980) ''Cranach, a Family of Master Painters'' (translated from the German by Helen Sebba) Putnam, New York, ISBN 0-399-11831-4
* Stepanov, Alexander (1997) ''Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1472-1553'' Parkstone, Bournemouth, England, ISBN 1-85995-266-6
* Koerner, Joseph Leo (2004) ''The reformation of the image'' University of Chicago Press, Chicago, ISBN 0-226-45006-6
* Moser, Peter (2005) ''Lucas Cranach: His Life, His World, His Pictures'' (translated from the German by Kenneth Wynne) Babenberg Verlag, Bamberg, Germany, ISBN 3-933469-15-5
* Brinkmann, Bodo ''et al.'' (2007) ''Lucas Cranach'' Royal Academy of Arts, London, ISBN 1-905711-13-1
* Heydenreich, Gunnar (2007) ''Lucas Cranach the Elder: Painting materials, techniques and workshop practice'', Amsterdam University Press, ISBN 9789053567456
* Luther, Martin (1521) [http://books.google.com/books?id=tbvV9F4tLEUC&pg=PA265#PPA253,M1 ''Passional Christi und Antichristi'']. Reprinted in W.H.T. Dau (1921) ''At the Tribunal of Caesar: Leaves from the Story of Luther's Life''. St. Louis: Concordia. (Google Books)


===Bibliography===
==See also==
* [[Early Renaissance painting]]
{{refbegin}}
*{{fr}} {{citation|last=Bernault|first=Florence|title=Démocraties ambiguës en Afrique centrale: Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, 1940-1965| year=1996|publisher=Karthala|location=Paris|isbn=2865376362|oclc=36142247}}.
*{{fr}} {{citation|last=Biteghe|first=Moïse N’Solé|title=Echec aux militaires au Gabon en 1964|year=1990|publisher=Chaka|location=Paris|isbn=2907768069|oclc=29518659}}.
*{{citation|last1=Darlington|first1=Charles Francis|last2=Darlington|first2=Alice B.|title=African Betrayal|publisher=D. McKay Co.|location=[[New York, New York]]|date=1968|oclc=172139}}.
*{{citation|last=Gardinier|first=David E.|title=Historical Dictionary of Gabon|publisher=Scarecrow Press|location=[[Metuchen, New Jersey]]|date=1994|edition=2nd|isbn=0810814358|oclc=7462387}}.
*{{citation|last=[[International Institute for Strategic Studies]]
|title=Adelphi Papers: NATO and the Cyprus Crisis |year=1964|series=[[Adelphi Papers]]|
|location=[[Oxford]]|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|edition=9,14,17,21-23
|oclc=173447370}}.
* {{fr}} {{citation|last=Keese|first=Alexander|title=L'évolution du leader indigène aux yeux des administrateurs français: Léon M'Ba et le changement des modalités de participation au pouvoir local au Gabon, 1922-1967|year=2004|journal=Afrique & Histoire|volume=2|issue=1|issn=1764-1977|url=http://www.cairn.info/article.php?ID_REVUE=AFHI&ID_NUMPUBLIE=AFHI_002&ID_ARTICLE=AFHI_002_0141|pages=141–170}}.
* {{citation|last=Matthews|first=Ronald|title=African Powder Keg: Revolt and Dissent in Six Emergent Nations|year=1966|publisher=[[The Bodley Head]]|location=London|oclc=246401461}}.
* {{citation|editor-last=Murison|editor-first=Katharine|year=2003|title=Africa South of the Sahara 2004|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis Group|Europa Publications]]|location=London|edition=33rd|isbn=1-85743-183-9|oclc=52621809}}.
* {{fr}} {{citation|last=Péan|first=Pierre||authorlink=Pierre Péan|title=Affaires africaines|year=1983|publisher=Fayard|location=Paris|isbn=2213013241|oclc= 10363948 }}.
* {{citation|last=Reed|first=Michael C.|title=Gabon: A Neo-Colonial Enclave of Enduring French Interest|date=June 1987|journal=[[The Journal of Modern African Studies]]|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|volume=25|issue=2|oclc=77874468|url=http://www.jstor.org/pss/161015 |pages=283–320}}.
* {{citation|last=Wallerstein|first=Immanuel Maurice|year=2005|title=Africa: The Politics of Independence and Unity|publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]]|location=[[Lincoln, Nebraska|Lincoln]], [[Nebraska]]|isbn=0803298560|oclc=60590049}}.
*{{citation|last=Yates|first=Douglas A.|title=The rentier state in Africa: oil rent dependency and neocolonialism in the Republic of Gabon|year=1996|publisher=Africa World Press|location=[[Trenton, New Jersey|Trenton]], [[New Jersey]]|isbn=0-86543-521-9|oclc=34543635}}.
{{refend}}


==External links==
{{1964 Gabon coup d'état}}
{{commonscat|Lucas Cranach d. Ä.}}
* [http://cyberbrethren.typepad.com/cranachinweimar/ The Cranach Altar Painting in Weimar, Germany]
* [http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/collections/13c-16c/nymph.asp The nymph of the fountain] in [http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool]
* [http://www.atla.com/digitalresources/results.asp?pagenumber=1&cl1=ALL&keyword=lucas+cranach+elder&title=&description=&subject= Woodcuts of Lucas Cranach the Elder in Cooperative Digital Resources Initiative]
*[http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1477-4658.2007.00337.x A Lutheran idyll: Lucas Cranach the Elder's Cupid Complaining to Venus]
*[http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article3757336.ece "Cranach's golden age"]: an article in the [http://www.the-tls.co.uk TLS] by Timothy Hyman, April 16th 2008


{{DEFAULTSORT:Cranach the Elder, Lucas}}
[[Category:Coups]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1964]]
[[Category:1472 births]]
[[Category:1964 in Gabon]]
[[Category:1553 deaths]]
[[Category:Politics of Gabon]]
[[Category:German Lutherans]]
[[Category:Government of Gabon]]
[[Category:German painters]]
[[Category:People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar]]
[[Category:Martin Luther]]
[[Category:Portrait artists]]
[[Category:Printmaking]]
[[Category:German Renaissance painters]]

[[cs:Lucas Cranach starší]]
[[da:Lucas Cranach den Ældre]]
[[de:Lucas Cranach der Ältere]]
[[es:Lucas Cranach el Viejo]]
[[fr:Lucas Cranach l'Ancien]]
[[it:Lucas Cranach il vecchio]]
[[la:Lucas Cranach maior]]
[[lv:Lūkass Krānahs Vecākais]]
[[hu:Lucas Cranach, id.]]
[[nl:Lucas Cranach de Oude]]
[[ja:ルーカス・クラナッハ]]
[[no:Lucas Cranach den eldre]]
[[pl:Lucas Cranach Starszy]]
[[pt:Lucas Cranach o Velho]]
[[ro:Lucas Cranach cel Bătrân]]
[[ru:Кранах, Лукас Старший]]
[[simple:Lucas Cranach the Elder]]
[[sr:Лука Кранах Старији]]
[[fi:Lucas Cranach vanhempi]]
[[sv:Lucas Cranach d.ä.]]
[[th:ลูคัส ครานาค]]
[[zh:老卢卡斯·克拉纳赫]]

Revision as of 17:47, 12 October 2008

Portrait of Lucas Cranach the Elder at age 77 by Lucas Cranach the Younger (1550), at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Lucas Cranach the Elder (Lucas Cranach der Ältere, 4 October 1472 – 16 October 1553) was a German painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was born Lucas Sunder at Kronach in upper Franconia, and learned the art of drawing from his father.

It has not been possible to trace his descent or the name of his parents. His name of birth is differently known as Sünder, Sunder or Sonder. Some mention a Hans Maler and wife, Hübner, who died in 1491. Later, he took the name of his birth-place as his surname. We do not know how Cranach was trained, but it was probably with local south German masters, as with his contemporary Matthias Grünewald, who worked at Bamberg and Aschaffenburg. Bamberg is the capital of the diocese in which Kronach lies.

According to Gunderam (the tutor of Cranach's children) Cranach demonstrated his talents as a painter before the close of the 15th century. His work then drew the attention of the Elector of Saxony, who attached Cranach to his person in 1504. The records of Wittenberg confirm Gunderam's statement to this extent that Cranach's name appears for the first time in the public accounts on the 24 June 1504, when he drew 50 gulden for the salary of half a year, as pictor ducalis.

The only clue to Cranach's settlement previous to his Wittenberg appointment is afforded by the knowledge that he owned a house at Gotha, and that Barbara Brengbier, his wife, was the daughter of a burgher of that city and also born there, having died at Wittenberg on 26 December 1540.

Career

The first evidence of his skill as an artist comes in a picture dated 1504. We find him active in several branches of his profession, sometimes a house-painter, more frequently producing portraits and altar-pieces, a designer on wood, an engraver of copper-plates, and draughtsman for the dies of the electoral mint.

The Stag Hunt of the Elector Frederick the Wise.

Early in the days of his official employment he startled his master's courtiers by the realism with which he painted still life, game and antlers on the walls of the country palaces at Coburg and Locha; his pictures of deer and wild boar were considered striking, and the duke fostered his passion for this form of art by taking him out to the hunting field, where he sketched "his grace" running the stag, or Duke John sticking a boar.

Before 1508 he had painted several altar-pieces for the Castle Church at Wittenberg in competition with Albrecht Dürer, Hans Burgkmair and others; the duke and his brother John were portrayed in various attitudes and a number of the best woodcuts and copper-plates were published.

Great honour accrued to Cranach when he went in 1509 to the Netherlands, and took sittings from the Emperor Maximilian and the boy who afterwards became Charles V. Until 1508 Cranach signed his works with the initials of his name. In that year the elector gave him the winged snake as a motto, and this motto, or Kleinod, as it was called, superseded the initials on all his pictures after that date.

Martin Luther (1529, Uffizi)

Somewhat later the duke conferred on him the monopoly of the sale of medicines at Wittenberg, and a printer's patent with exclusive privileges as to copyright in Bibles. Cranach's presses were used by Martin Luther. His chemist's shop was open for centuries, and only perished by fire in 1871.

Friendship united the painter with the Protestant Reformers at a very early period; yet it is difficult to fix the time of his first acquaintance with Luther. The oldest reference to Cranach in the Reformer's correspondence dates from 1520. In a letter written from Worms in 1521, Luther calls him his gossip, warmly alluding to his "Gevatterin," the artist's wife. His first engraved portrait by Cranach represents an Augustinian friar, and is dated 1520. Five years later the friar dropped the cowl, and Cranach was present as "one of the council" at the betrothal festival of Luther and Katharina von Bora, and later as godfather to their first child (Johannes, or Hans, born 1526).

The death at short intervals of the electors Frederick and John (1525 and 1532) brought no change in the prosperous situation of the painter; he remained a favourite with John Frederick I, under whose administration he twice (1531 and 1540) filled the office of burgomaster of Wittenberg. But 1547 witnessed a remarkable change in these relations.

John Frederick was taken prisoner at the Battle of Mühlberg, and Wittenberg was subjected to the stress of siege. As Cranach wrote from his house at the corner of the marketplace to the grand-master Albert of Brandenburg at Königsberg to tell him of John Frederick's capture, he showed his attachment by saying,

"I cannot conceal from your Grace that we have been robbed of our dear prince, who from his youth upwards has been a true prince to us, but God will help him out of prison, for the Kaiser is bold enough to revive the Papacy, which God will certainly not allow."

During the siege Charles bethought him of Cranach, whom he remembered from his childhood and summoned him to his camp at Pistritz. Cranach came, reminded his majesty of his early sittings as a boy, and begged on his knees for kind treatment to the elector.

Three years afterwards, when all the dignitaries of the Empire met at Augsburg to receive commands from the emperor, and Titian came at Charles's bidding to paint Philip of Spain, John Frederick asked Cranach to visit the Swabian capital; and here for a few months he was numbered amongst the household of the captive elector, whom he afterwards accompanied home in 1552.

He died on the 16th of October 1553 at Weimar, where the house in which he lived still stands in the marketplace. He is commemorated as an artist by the Lutheran Church on April 6.

Cranach's Art

The oldest extant picture by Cranach, the "Rest of the Virgin during the Flight into Egypt," marked with the initials L.C., and the date of 1504, is by far the most graceful creation of his pencil. The scene is laid on the margin of a forest of pines, and discloses the habits of a painter familiar with the mountain scenery of Thuringia. There is more of gloom in landscapes of a later time.

Cranach's art in its prime was doubtless influenced by causes which but slightly affected the art of the Italians, but weighed with potent consequence on that of the Netherlands and Germany. The business of booksellers who sold woodcuts and engravings at fairs and markets in Germany naturally satisfied a craving which arose out of the paucity of wall paintings in churches and secular edifices. Drawing for woodcuts and engraving of copperplates became the occupation of artists of note, and the talents devoted in Italy to productions of the brush were here monopolized for designs on wood or on copper.

We have thus to account for the comparative unproductiveness as painters of Dürer and Holbein, and at the same time to explain the shallowness apparent in many of the later works of Cranach; but we attribute to the same cause also the tendency in Cranach to neglect effective colour and light and shade for strong contrasts of flat tint.

Adam & Eve woodcut

Constant attention to contour and to black and white appears to have affected his sight, and caused those curious transitions of pallid light into inky grey which often characterize his studies of flesh; whilst outlining of form in black became a natural substitute for modelling and chiaroscuro. There are, no doubt, some few pictures by Cranach in which the flesh-tints display brightness and enamelled surface, but they are quite exceptional.

As a composer Cranach was not greatly gifted. His ideal of the human shape was low; but he showed some freshness in the delineation of incident, though he not unfrequently bordered on coarseness. His copper-plates and woodcuts are certainly the best outcome of his art; and the earlier they are in date the more conspicuous is their power. Striking evidence of this is the "St Christopher" of 1506, or the plate of "Elector Frederick praying before the Madonna" (1509).

It is curious to watch the changes which mark the development of his instincts as an artist during the struggles of the Reformation. At first we find him painting Madonnas. His first woodcut (1505) represents the Virgin and three saints in prayer before a crucifix. Later on he composes the marriage of St Catherine, a series of martyrdoms, and scenes from the Passion.

After 1517 he illustrates occasionally the old Gospel themes, but he also gives expression to some of the thoughts of the Reformers. In a picture of 1518 at Leipzig, where a dying man offers "his soul to God, his body to earth, and his worldly goods to his relations," the soul rises to meet the Trinity in heaven, and salvation is clearly shown to depend on faith and not on good works.

Again sin and grace become a familiar subject of pictorial delineation. Adam is observed sitting between John the Baptist and a prophet at the foot of a tree. To the left God produces the tables of the law, Adam and Eve partake of the forbidden fruit, the brazen serpent is reared aloft, and punishment supervenes in the shape of death and the realm of Satan. To the right, the Conception, Crucifixion and Resurrection symbolize redemption, and this is duly impressed on Adam by John the Baptist, who points to the sacrifice of the crucified Saviour. There are two examples of this composition in the galleries of Gotha and Prague, both of them dated 1529.

One of the latest pictures with which the name of Cranach is connected is the altarpiece which Cranach's son completed in 1555, and which is now (1911) in the Stadtkirche (city church) at Weimar. It represents Christ in two forms, to the left trampling on Death and Satan, to the right crucified, with blood flowing from the lance wound. John the Baptist points to the suffering Christ, whilst the blood-stream falls on the head of Cranach, and Luther reads from his book the words, "The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin."

Cranach sometimes composed Gospel subjects with feeling and dignity. "The Woman taken in Adultery" at Munich is a favourable specimen of his skill, and various repetitions of Christ receiving little children show the kindliness of his disposition.

Portrait of a Saxon Princess by Lucas Cranach the Elder

But he was not exclusively a religious painter. He was equally successful, and often comically naïve, in mythological scenes, as where Cupid, who has stolen a honeycomb, complains to Venus that he has been stung by a bee (Weimar, 1530; Berlin, 1534), or where Hercules sits at the spinning-wheel mocked by Omphale and her maids.

Humour and pathos are combined at times with strong effect in pictures such as the "Jealousy" (Augsburg, 1527; Vienna, 1530), where women and children are huddled into telling groups as they watch the strife of men wildly fighting around them.

Very realistic must have been a lost canvas of 1545, in which hares were catching and roasting sportsmen. In 1546, possibly under Italian influence, Cranach composed the "Fons Juventutis" ("Fountain of Youth") of the Berlin Gallery, executed by his son, a picture in which hags are seen entering a Renaissance fountain, and are received as they issue from it with all the charms of youth by knights and pages.

Cranach's chief occupation was that of portrait painting, and we are indebted to him chiefly for the preservation of the features of all the German Reformers and their princely adherents. He painted not only Martin Luther himself but also Luther's wife, mother and father (see gallery below). But he sometimes condescended to depict such noted followers of the papacy as Albert of Brandenburg, archbishop elector of Mainz, Anthony Granvelle and the Duke of Alva.

A dozen likenesses of Frederick III and his brother John are found to bear the date of 1532. It is characteristic of Cranach's readiness, and a proof that he possessed ample material for mechanical reproduction, that he received payment at Wittenberg in 1533 for "sixty pairs of portraits of the elector and his brother" in one day. Amongst existing likenesses we should notice as the best that of Albert, elector of Mainz, in the Berlin Museum, and that of John, elector of Saxony, at Dresden.

Cranach died at Weimar and had three sons, all artists: John Lucas Cranach, who died at Bologna in 1536; Hans Cranach, whose life is obscure; and Lucas, born in 1515, who died in 1586. He also had a daughter, Barbara Cranach, who died in 1569, married to Christian Brück (Pontanus), ancestors of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Gallery of Lucas Cranach the Elder's Works

References

  • Posse, Hans (1942) Lucas Cranach d. ä. A. Schroll & Co., Vienna OCLC 773554 in German
  • Descargues, Pierre (1960) Lucas Cranach the Elder (translated from the French by Helen Ramsbotham) Oldbourne Press, London, OCLC 434642
  • Ruhmer, Eberhard (1963) Cranach (translated from the German by Joan Spencer) Phaidon, London, OCLC 1107030
  • Friedländer, Max J.and Rosenberg, Jakob (1978) The Paintings of Lucas Cranach Tabard Press, New York ISBN 0-914427-31-8
  • Schade, Werner (1980) Cranach, a Family of Master Painters (translated from the German by Helen Sebba) Putnam, New York, ISBN 0-399-11831-4
  • Stepanov, Alexander (1997) Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1472-1553 Parkstone, Bournemouth, England, ISBN 1-85995-266-6
  • Koerner, Joseph Leo (2004) The reformation of the image University of Chicago Press, Chicago, ISBN 0-226-45006-6
  • Moser, Peter (2005) Lucas Cranach: His Life, His World, His Pictures (translated from the German by Kenneth Wynne) Babenberg Verlag, Bamberg, Germany, ISBN 3-933469-15-5
  • Brinkmann, Bodo et al. (2007) Lucas Cranach Royal Academy of Arts, London, ISBN 1-905711-13-1
  • Heydenreich, Gunnar (2007) Lucas Cranach the Elder: Painting materials, techniques and workshop practice, Amsterdam University Press, ISBN 9789053567456
  • Luther, Martin (1521) Passional Christi und Antichristi. Reprinted in W.H.T. Dau (1921) At the Tribunal of Caesar: Leaves from the Story of Luther's Life. St. Louis: Concordia. (Google Books)

See also

External links

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