The Torgauer Altar, Torgau Altarpiece or Altarpiece of the Holy Kinship is a triptych altarpiece painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1509. [1]
The Torgauer Altar, Torgau Altarpiece or Altarpiece of the Holy Kinship is a triptych altarpiece painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1509. [1]
The painting includes Joseph, the Virgin, Anna and the child Christ, with Anna's three husbands in the background of the centre panel. The "Holy Kinship" is shown resting in a lavishly decorated room, including marble columns and stone benches. [2]
The three men depicted in the gallery have been identified as having the likenesses of Emperor Maximilian (centre), Imperial Councillor Sixtus Oelhafen (right) and the artist (left). [2]
Unusually, Lucas Cranach signed and dated the painting in Latin: LUCAS CHRONUS/FACIEBAT/ANNO 1509, visible in the notice hanging on one of the central columns. It is suggested that the choice and treatment of the subject shows that he knew the St Anne altarpiece by Quinten Metsys while still in the master's Antwerp studio. Cranach chose an explicitly German theme by means of the forested and mountainous landscape in the background, and including portraits of Emperor Maximilian, Elector Frederick the Wise and his brother, Duke John the Steadfast, among members of the Holy Family. He later painted another version of the Kinship on a single panel. [3]
The triptych was purchased by the Städel Museum Frankfurt in 1906 at auction in Paris. [2]
Lucas Cranach the Elder was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was court painter to the Electors of Saxony for most of his career, and is known for his portraits, both of German princes and those of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation, whose cause he embraced with enthusiasm. He was a close friend of Martin Luther. Cranach also painted religious subjects, first in the Catholic tradition, and later trying to find new ways of conveying Lutheran religious concerns in art. He continued throughout his career to paint nude subjects drawn from mythology and religion.
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The Heller Altarpiece was an oil on panel triptych by German Renaissance artists Albrecht Dürer and Matthias Grünewald, executed between 1507 and 1509. The artwork was named after Jakob Heller, who ordered it. Dürer painted the interior, Grünewald the exterior.
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The Prague Altarpiece of Lucas Cranach the Elder portrays the Virgin Mary and female saints was, at the time it was made, the second most important altarpiece in St Vitus Cathedral. The altarpiece was most probably brought to Prague as a commission by Emperor Maximilian I. The reason for this could have been the betrothal of his granddaughter Mary to Louis II of Hungary, the engagement of Ferdinand I and Anna Jagiellon (1515) or the coronation of Mary of Habsburg as Queen of Bohemia (1522). A hundred years later, in 1619, the altarpiece fell victim to Calvinist iconoclasm. The figures of the female saints were cut out of it and its central part was destroyed.
The Votive Painting from Šopka (1530) is the work of an anonymous disciple of Lucas Cranach the Elder, who worked in north-west Bohemia and is referred to by the initials with which he signed his paintings as Master IW. The painting was discovered at the end of the 19th century in the parish church, formerly the Augustinian Monastery Church of St. Laurence in Šopka and is exhibited in the Gallery and Museum of the Litoměřice Diocese.