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The Close of the Silver Age (?)
Lucas Cranach the Elderabout 1530
The National Gallery, London
London, United Kingdom
The subject possibly shows the quarrelsome end of the Silver Age, according to Hesiod, or perhaps according to a contemporary derivation from him.
Similar subjects occur in a number of paintings by Cranach; some of these are dated 1527, 1529 and 1535. This painting may well be of the same period.
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Details
- Title: The Close of the Silver Age (?)
- Creator: Lucas Cranach the Elder
- Date Created: about 1530
- Physical Dimensions: 50.2 x 35.7 cm
- Type: Painting
- Medium: Oil on oak
- School: German
- More Info: Explore the National Gallery’s paintings online
- Inventory number: NG3922
- Artist Dates: 1472 - 1553
- Artist Biography: Cranach was one of the leading German painters and printmakers of the early 16th century. As court painter of the Elector of Saxony, the patron of Luther, Cranach is remembered as the chief artist of the Reformation. He painted altarpieces, Lutheran subject pictures and portraits, as well as mythological decorative works and nudes, such as the 'Cupid complaining to Venus' in the Collection. Cranach was named after his native town of Kronach in Upper Franconia. He was probably trained there by his father, Hans. Around 1500 or earlier he travelled through Bavaria to Vienna, where he was briefly active. Early works exemplify the Danube school (see also Altdorfer) in their poetic use of landscape. In 1505 he entered the service of the Electors of Saxony at Wittenberg, becoming a town councillor there in 1519 and burgomaster in 1537 and 1540. In 1550 he was with the Elector John Frederick who was held prisoner in Augsburg. He retired in 1552 to Weimar, leaving his sons, Hans and Lucas the Younger, to carry on his workshop.
- Acquisition Credit: Mond Bequest, 1924
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