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The False and the True Church
Lucas Cranach the Elder, Lucas Cranach the Youngerc. 1546
Renaissance and Reformation. German Art in the Age of Dürer and Cranach
This print is said to have been based on a painting in the Schlosskapelle (Palace chapel) in Wittenberg, where Luther is buried. The Reformer is pointing with his right hand at Christ and the Communion on a simple, Protestant altar. With his left hand, however, he is pointing at representatives of the Catholic Church in the mouth of hell. The juxtaposition calls on viewers to make their own judgment.
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Details
- Title: The False and the True Church
- Creator: Lucas Cranach the Younger
- Date Created: c. 1546
- Physical Dimensions: 27.9 × 39 cm
- Technique and Material: Woodcut
- Provenance: Old inventory, first listed in the inventory in 1861–62
- Museum: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Kupferstich-Kabinett
- Inv.-No.: A 6628
- ISIL-No.: DE-MUS-845516
- External Link: http://www.skd.museum/de/museen-institutionen/residenzschloss/kupferstich-kabinett/
- Copyright: Photo © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Kupferstich-Kabinett/ Herbert Boswank; Text © Renaissance and Reformation: German Art in the Age of Dürer and Cranach, A Cooperation of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, and the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen München, Catalogue of the Exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Nov 20, 2016 – March 26, 2017, Munich: Prestel, 2016; cat. no. 34 / Claudia Schnitzer
- Catalogue: https://prestelpublishing.randomhouse.de/book/Renaissance-and-Reformation/Stephanie-Buck/Prestel-com/e504919.rhd
- Artist Dates: 1515 Wittenberg–1586 Wittenberg
- Artist Biography: The painter was trained in his father’s workshop, which he ran successfully after Lucas Cranach the Elder left Wittenberg (following his employer, John Frederick of Saxony, into exile). In many cases, clear separation of their oeuvres is only possible in the late work. Like his father before him, Cranach the Younger held respected political offices in Wittenberg. / Kempff: Kempff probably worked as a block cutter and demonstrably as a printer of broadsheets. It cannot be determined whether the woodcuts that illustrate his broadsheets are based on his own drawings or those of other artists. Kempff was presumably active in Nuremberg and Magdeburg.
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