Lukas Spielhausen
Medium
Oil and gold on beech
Dimensions
20 x 14 3/8 in. (50.8 x 36.5 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Gula V. Hirschland, 1980
Accession Number
1981.57.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Lukas Spielhausen** (1532) by Lucas Cranach the Elder is striking portrait from the Northern Renaissance, capturing the poised likeness of its male subject in oil and gold on a beech wood panel (20 x 14 3/8 in.). Housed in the Metropolitan Museum Art's European Paintings department this work arrived as part of the 1980 bequest from Gula V. Hirsch. Cranach, a prolific German artist and court painter to the Electors of Saxony excelled in such intimate portraits, often commissioned by merchants, nobles, or reformers during the early Protestant era. Cranach's style blends meticulous realism wit...
About the Artist
Lucas Cranach the Elder · 1472–1553
Lucas Cranach the Elder (c. 1472-1553) was one of the most prominent German Renaissance painters and a key artistic figure of the Protestant Reformation. Born in Kronach, Franconia, to the painter Hans Maler, Cranach began his career in Vienna around 1502, where he became one of the founders of the Danube School, a movement characterized by expressive landscape painting and emotional force. His ea...