Lucas Cranach the Elder

Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553), born in Kronach, Franconia, was the leading German painter and printmaker of the early Reformation; he took his surname from his birthplace. In 1504 Elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony made him court painter at Wittenberg, where he served the Saxon electors for the rest of his life. A close friend of Martin Luther, he ran a workshop producing portraits of Protestant princes, altarpieces and woodcuts.

A wealthy Wittenberg burgher who served twice as burgomaster, he joined John Frederick I in captivity after Mühlberg (1547) and died at Weimar in 1553.