Hans Cranach

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Hans Cranach: Portrait of a bearded man ; 1534; Madrid, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza
Hans Cranach: Hercules at the court of Omphale ; 1537; Madrid, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza

Hans Cranach (* around 1513 in Wittenberg ; † October 9, 1537 in Bologna ) was a German painter and draftsman .

Life

He was the eldest son and student of Lucas Cranach the Elder . Little is known about his short life. Like his brother Lucas Cranach the Younger , he began working at an early age in his father's Wittenberg workshop. Presumably he made his own works from 1527 onwards, which at this time can hardly be distinguished from those of his father. Around 1537 he traveled to Italy, where he died in Bologna that same year. A long poem composed for his death ( In immaturus obitum Johannis Lucas F. Cranachii by Johann Stigel) honors him as a talented and productive painter. Even if some things will be exaggerated, Hans must have played an important role in the Cranach workshop. There has been no lack of attempts to filter out its share. The starting point is the two only paintings from 1534 and 1537 that can be definitely attributed to him due to the signature - HC - as well as a sketchbook that he verifiably used in Italy. In terms of style, there is no fundamental difference between his safe work and the work of his father. In his knowledge of forms he was probably inferior to him and the design seems a bit softer, but the few works that have been assigned to him do not allow a final judgment. In the first (and only remaining) volume of his Cranach studies in 1900, Eduard Flechsig attributed numerous works from the environment of the Cranach workshop to Hans Cranach, but later revoked these attributions.

Surprisingly, in 1537, perhaps with the death of Hans, the signature of the Cranach workshop changed slightly. The previously steeply erect wings of the snake are now stretched and thus made a little more horizontal. This probably also showed that from now on his younger brother, Lucas Cranach the Younger, assumed the role of his father's closest colleague.

Works

  • Linköping, Länsmuseet Östergötland: Adam and Eve. (attributed to) around 1530 - 1532
  • Madrid, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza: Portrait of a bearded young man. 1534
  • Madrid, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza: Hercules and Omphale. 1537
  • Oslo, Nasjonalgalerie: Maria with the child. (attributed to) around 1534 - 1537
  • Oslo, Nasjonalgalerie: Portrait of a man. (Drawing, attributed to) around 1520
  • Paris, Musée du Petit Palais: Portrait of a young woman. (attributed to) around 1534
  • San Francisco, Museum of Fine Arts: Judith. (attributed to) around 1537

literature

  • Eduard Flechsig: Cranach Studies. 1900
  • Max J. Friedländer , Jakob Rosenberg : The paintings by Lucas Cranach. Parkland Verlag, Stuttgart 1979
  • Theo Ludwig Girshausen:  Cranach, Hans. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 394 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Dieter Koepplin, Tilman Falk: Lucas Cranach. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel and Stuttgart (1974 and 1976, 2 volumes, catalog for the exhibition in Basel 1974)
  • Werner Schade: The Cranach family of painters. VEB Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1974

Web links

Commons : Hans Cranach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Man Sports Rescue . DigitaltMuseum. Retrieved on April 9, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Cranach, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and draftsman
DATE OF BIRTH around 1513
PLACE OF BIRTH Wittenberg
DATE OF DEATH October 9, 1537
Place of death Bologna