Lucas Cranach and Albrecht Dürer (April 6)

Lucas Cranach

Cranach self-portrait

 Biography of Lucas Cranach taken from Art and the Bible:

Lucas Cranach was the eldest of nine children. His father, Hans Maler, a painter himself, must have given him his first lessons. Lucas adopted the name Cranach when he was already over 30. It refers to his place of birth, the current town Kronach. He moved to Vienna in 1501, and to Wittenberg in 1505, after he had been appointed to the court of Frederic III, elector of Saxony. Experts often see a breach of styles after the move to Wittenberg. His Vienna works were full of expression and very dynamic. After the move, his style became more static.

In Wittenberg Cranach met the reformer Martin Luther, whom he portrayed many times. Besides being a painter Cranach also sold medicines and paper, ran a wine pub and printed books. In 1522 he printed the first editions of Luther's German translation of the New Testament.  In 1524 Cranach met Albrecht Dürer, the other great German renaissance artist. Dürer made a portrait of Cranach at that occasion.

Lucas Cranach was a member of the Wittenberg city council and was elected as mayor three times. Perhaps it was a talent for politics that enabled him to work for Catholic as well as Protestant clients.

Cranach and his wife Barbara had five children. Together with his sons, Hans and Lucas, Cranach ran a thriving workshop, that produced several thousand paintings, engravings and prints. Often it is not clear exactly who created what. The workshop and his other occupations provided steady revenues to Cranach, making him the wealthiest civilian of Wittenberg.

Cranach remained in the service of Saxonian electors throughout his life. In the service of John Frederic I he moved to Weimar, where he died in 1553.

You can view more of Cranach's works at The Athenaeum.

Albrect Dürer

Christ as the Man of Sorrows. 1493.

Durer Self-portrait

Biography of Albrecht Dürer from www.Artrepublic.com:

 Albrecht Durer worked in many different media including dry point and printmaking. He was an expert in matters of proportion even writing four books on the subject. Despite his scholarly approach to his work he remained a deeply instinctive artist and is regarded as one of the first great draughtsmen of Germany.

He was born in Nuremberg in 1471. At the age of 15 he was apprenticed to Michael Wolgemut, the book illustrator and painter. He then travelled to Italy where he produced his first notable painting in 1500, a self-portrait. As well as producing woodcuts and engraving she was concerned with tackling many of the key Renaissance questions such as perspective and proportion. In 1505 he moved to Venice where he remained for two years experimenting with technique and produced 'The Feast of the Rose-Garlands'. He specialised in line engravings, which involved cutting into the surface of metal, frequently copper, with a burin, resulting in images very rich in texture. Works such as 'St. Jerome in his Study' (1514) and 'Agony in the Garden'(1515) were produced in this way. He died in 1528.

"What shall I say of the firmness and accuracy of his hand? You could have sworn that what he drew without other means than the brush, pencil, or pen, to the immense astonishment of his beholders, had been drawn with rule and compass. What shall I say of the sympathy which reigned between his hand and his ideas so that often on the spur of the moment he dashed off, or, as painters say, composed sketches of every kind of thing with pencil or pen?" Camerarius, 1528 as quoted by Christopher White in Durer (Phaidon).

(for a more detailed biography and to view all his paintings and sketches, go to http://www.albrecht-durer.org/)

Is there documentation that Dürer converted? After reading numerous online biographies,  there isn't a clear consensus.  Have any of you read a detailed biography (i.e. a book) on him?

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Blogger isn't working out so well today; I had trouble formatting all the paintings and engravings I wanted to include.  Here are some ideas for activities:

*Have grade-school through high school students "copy" their favorite Cranach or Dürer; concentrate on whatever art skills they are working on (so a middle schooler might practice perspective or proportion, a younger child mixing colors, the very talented high schooler using the same media as the artists (this may be a week-long activity)

* Read a biography

Artist of the Reformation: The Story of Albrecht Dürer by Joyce McPherson                        

         Albrecht Dürer (Art for Children series) by Ernest Lloyd Raboff  
* Analyze one painting for its theological content.

*Go to a museum that has a Cranach or Dürer piece (The Chicago Art Institute has many Dürer etchings and Cranach paintings; The Saint Louis Art Museum has two Cranach's and a handful of Durer etchings).

*Talk about the artist's vocation and the modern (romantic) notion of the artist following his genius (in the pagan Roman sense; following his inner deity or "angel").  Cranach and Dürer did not share our romantic  ideas of activism, artistic expression as self-expression.  What do you think about Cranach painting for Roman Catholics, or Dürer's more humanistic themes?  Were they "selling out"?

                            

Martin Luther (February 18)

"Therefore we make this definition of a Christian: a Christian is not he who has no sin, but he to whom God does not impute his sin, through faith in Christ.  That is why we so often repeat and beat it into your minds, the forgiveness of sins and imputation of righteousness for Christ’s sake.”  

Martin Luther in his commentary on Galatians

                               

 Martinus Luther. Lucas Cranach the Elder

Luther's 1534 Bible

Activities and Suggested Reading:

*95 Theses.  

*Augsburg Confession.

*We used the Luther rose coloring page from this Reformation Day Party ideas website and talked about the different parts of the rose and what they represent. It's not a Lutheran page (a community church), but some of the ideas are useful. 

* Four weekly activities for focusing on Luther's life and theology (for grade schoolers).  This would be a great project for October, leading up to Reformation Sunday.  I'll try to remember to post the link again next Fall.    

What's your favorite Luther quote?                                                                                                                                                                          

Philipp Melanchthon (February 16)

"Faith is nothing else than trust in the divine mercy promised in Christ."

Melanchthon. Dürer, Albrecht

Melanchthon. Holbein

Melanchthon. Cranach the Elder.

Luther Making Music in the Circle of his Family. 1875. Spangenberg, Gustav Aldolph

A nice summary of Melanchthon's life includes his domestic tragedies, and subsequent willingness to fulfill his vocation as an uncle and grandfather, supporting his orphaned relatives.  (The Spangenberg painting above suggests he was the Luthers' adopted bachelor uncle  :)

Melanchthon is a tough saint to celebrate with the kiddos.  No coloring pages (unless you blow up Dürer's drawing and print that).  Few interesting legends or stories, no food associated with him.  Here's a short list of what I came up with (some are just fun):

* Talk about how important Christian education is (Sunday School, family devotions, private reading), and how "growing in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" is vital to the Christian life.

*  Everyone change their name for the day (Melanchthon's real last name was Schwartzerdt, "black earth".  He changed it to the Greek form.  It seemed to be popular among the intelligentsia, back in the day, to take on a hellenized or romanized name.  So my last name in Greek would be Glyka, in Latin Dulcis. Erasmus's real name was supposedly Gerard Gerardson--I guess I would have changed it, too.)

* Melanchthon drafted Instructions for the Visitors of Parish Pastors in Electoral Saxony (1528).  In it he suggests grammar-school students memorize the following Psalms.  Try learning a few you don't know this week.

"Furthermore the teachers should ask the pupils to memorize a number of easy Psalms that contain in themselves a summary of the Christian life and speak about the fear of God, faith and good works, e.g.:

 Psalm 112 :11; Blessed is the man who fears the Lord.”

Psalm 34 :1: “I will bless the Lord at all times.”

Psalm 128 [:1]: “Blessed is every one who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways!”

Psalm 125 [:1]: “Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides for ever.”

Psalm 127 [:1]: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.”

Psalm 133 [:1]: “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” 

*If you own the game Agricola, play it with your older kids after the little ones are down.  Or have some couples over for an impromptu game and beer night.  Melanchthon and Luther had a lengthy debate with John Agricola (born Roelof Huysmann or Johannes Eisleben?) over the proper uses of the Law.  Read all about it here, or if you have more time for scholarly depth, here (I have not read the book, but it's on my to-read waiting list.  I hear there's a lot of untranslated Latin and German).  

The game has absolutely nothing to do with the man, but once the beer starts flowing, maybe the adults can have a rousing discussion on the uses of the Law.  To make it more interesting, invite a Calvinist or Roman Catholic :)