The Crucifixion
Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
121.1 × 82.5 cm (47 3/4 × 32 1/2 in.); Framed: 147.4 × 109 × 7.7 cm (58 × 42 7/8 × 3 in.)
Classification
oil on panel
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
59856
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In this crowded scene, traditional vignettes from the Crucifixion story surround the central figure of Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus’s mother, the Virgin Mary, swoons amid a group of believers in the lower left corner. On the other side of the cross are Christ’s condemners and the cynics who rejected him, among them the soldiers who cast dice to divide up his clothing. Cranach was a good friend of the Protestant reformer Martin Luther, and though the Crucifixion was a subject more strongly as...
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...