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The martyrdom...
... of St. James the Younger
... of Saint Jude Thaddeus
... of Saint Philip
... of St Thomas

From the series of the Martyrdom of the 12 Apostles, ca. 1510.
Beautiful strong prints, partly trimmed to the margins.

The four representations of the martyrdoms of Thomas, James, Philip and Judas listed here belong to the rare series of the martyrdoms of the twelve apostles. The representations are based on the Legenda aurea, the golden legend, which was written at the end of the 13th century. The Genoese archbishop James de Voragine wrote the text in the years around 1264. In the early days of the printed book, the text went through no fewer than 70 editions from 1460 onwards and was probably one of the most widely circulated books of the Middle Ages. The Christian martyrs are executed before the eyes of a large, packed crowd of pagan executioners. Lucas Cranach's drastically detailed depiction of the moment of execution is heightened by the slightly larger depiction of the apostles and at the same time conveys the firmness and strength of the Christian faith. Due to their stylistic affinity with the Passion sequence painted in 1509, the woodcuts are dated 1512. At the time of their creation, there were only single-sheet prints of the woodcuts, and even these are found very sporadically in museums. There are only three known galley proofs with the text but without title and colophon. It was not until 1539 that a book edition was printed by Symphorian Reinhart, but only one bound copy is known. Even for Cranach's early biographer Joseph Heller, these representations were among the best works by Lukas Cranach and are a great rarity on the market.

The background to Cranach's art

With the extinction of the dukes of Askanien Castle and rulers of Saxony - Wittenberg in 1423, the Wettins were able to add the Duchy of Saxony to their margraviate of Meissen and their Thuringian possessions. According to the Golden Bull of 1356, the electoral dignity was also connected with the territory on the middle Elbe. Since then, the Margraves of Meissen were also dukes and electors and were among the most important princes in the empire. The lucrative mining and trade and a stable administrative system made this territory one of the most powerful in the Holy Roman Empire.

On 17 June 1485, the brothers Ernst and Albrecht the Brave agreed in Leipzig to separate their possessions, which they had previously ruled together. Two Wettin lines emerged; the Ernestines and the Albertines. The Ernestines ruled the Duchy of Saxony around Wittenberg with the electoral dignity and the Thuringian territories in the Mark of Meissen. Ernst died in 1486 and was succeeded by his son Frederick II the Wise. He chose Wittenberg as his new residence, founded the university in 1502 and engaged Lucas Cranach the Elder as court painter in 1505. In the first half of the 16th century, the city rapidly developed into one of the most important centres of science and art in the Holy Roman Empire. In a very short time the court of the Elector of Saxony gained in importance and prestige. He was a supporter and patron of Martin Luther, who allegedly posted his 95 theses on the castle church in Wittenberg in 1517, thus causing a public debate. Frederick the Wise died in 1525 and was succeeded by his brother John the Steadfast. He founded the Evangelical Lutheran State Church of which he was the "supreme bishop" of the Elector. Tensions between the emperor came to a head and John Frederick founded the Schmalkaldic League of the Protestant Imperial Estates. The tensions led to the Schmalkaldic War, which the League lost in 1547 with the decisive battle at Mühlberg and cost Johann Friedrich his freedom, the electoral dignity and a large part of his possessions.

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Saxon Prince on Horseback.

Woodcut. Monogr. and dat.: "LC" and "1506".

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Saint George on Horseback Fighting the Dragon, ca. 1512

The Cranachs

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Portrait of the theologian Johann Forster.

VIVA IMAGO REVERENDI VIRI IOANNIS FORSTE-/ RI, SACRAE THEOLOGIAE DOCTORIS, AC HERBRAICAE/ LINGVAE PROFESSORIS ORDINARII IN SCHO-/ LA VVITTEBERGENSI, ANNO M D LVI,


Top right: 1556 and Cranach's snake signet

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Martin Luther
Auff des königs zu Engelland lester schrifft titel, Mart. Luther's. Answer. Wittemberg,
(Michael Lotter) 1527.

With title border in woodcut by L. Cranach the Elder and 1 init. 8 pp. Newer Pgtbd.

Lucas Cranach's first graphic works were created during his stay in Vienna around 1501/03. From the beginning of his artistic career, Cranach envisaged printmaking as an important task. Economic considerations led him to prefer woodcut to copperplate engraving. With woodcuts, prints could be produced in almost unlimited quantities on the same platen press used for letterpress printing. Image and text printing could be combined quickly and with little effort in the case of single-leaf woodcuts and book illustrations. With copperplate engraving, on the other hand, as an intaglio printing process, the ink must be drawn from the engraved lines, for which a roller press with much higher pressure is needed.

The production of a woodcut required a division of labour between the designer, the engraver and the engraver. Because of the very different cutting methods used in Cranach's work, it can be assumed that he employed several engravers in Wittenberg. They formed the printing blocks. As court painter from 1505 until his death in 1553, Cranach determined the visual representation of the most powerful dynasty after the Habsburg imperial court. In addition to the usual crafts such as painting and gilding, the court painter also worked on designs for court garments, flags and festive decorations. His primary activity, however, consisted of creating representative paintings which served to decorate the electoral residences, but were also used in diplomatic dealings as gifts to friendly courts. For this purpose, Cranach's workshop produced countless portraits, mythological and biblical histories as well as depictions of hunting and tournaments. The early partisanship of the Saxon electors for Luther and his connection to the Cranach family meant that the Cranach workshop played an important role in spreading the ideas of the Reformation. Immediately with the beginning of the Reformation, Lucas Cranach began to produce propagandistic prints and mocking pictures which were widely distributed as pamphlets. In the process, a change in the pictorial language took place, especially in the Protestant world. The court slowly began to replace the church as the most important patron of the arts. The reference to the patron is reinforced by the Saxon double coat of arms, which Cranach used from the beginning of his activity as a court painter.

Saxon School

The history of the graphic arts in Saxony only begins with the appointment of the Franconian painter Lucas Cranach as court painter to Johann Friedrich the Wise in Wittenberg in 1505.
For the next half century, Lucas Cranach's remained the dominant influence not only in Wittenberg and Leipzig but also in the Lower Saxon districts further north, although smaller artists flourished in some outlying places such as Halberstadt. The Saxon printer, draughtsman and form cutter Jacob Lucius, also known as Master of the Adoration of the Shepherds, was in Wittenberg from 1556 and worked successfully for Hans Lufft, in Rostock from 1564 and in Helmstedt in 1576, where he died of the plague in 1597.
Hans Brosamer's artistic training probably also took place in the environment of the Saxon Cranach circle. Shortly afterwards we find him in Nuremberg, where he first worked as a portrait painter and later also produced his first woodcuts. Under the influence of Nuremberg his style changed from Georg Lemberger's painterly vocabulary of curly lines to a smoother and calmer art of drawing. Hans Brosamer worked for various printers throughout the Empire from the mid-1520s. Brosamer provided the magnificent illustrations for Peter Apian's ... in Ingolstadt, published between 1532 and 1540.

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JACOB LUCIUS the Elder
Adoration of the shepherds.
Woodcut, printed from two blocks on two sheets joined together. Watermark:
Two different vertical horns. Des Formschneider's monogram on the well WS.

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BURKHARD WALDIS
Origin and Heredity of the Twelve First Old Kings and Princes of the German Nation/ How and at What Times Each of Them Has Reigned. 1543.

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