Page "Lucas Cranach the Elder" Paragraph 29

After 1517 he occasionally illustrated the old subjects, but he also gave expression to some of the thoughts of the Reformers, although his portraits of reformers were more common than paintings of religious scenes.

In a picture of 1518, where a dying man offers " his soul to God, his body to earth, and his worldly goods to his relations ", the soul rises to meet the Trinity in heaven, and salvation is clearly shown to depend on faith and not on good works.

Other works of this period deal with sin and divine grace.

One shows Adam sitting between John the Baptist and a prophet at the foot of a tree.

To the left God produces the tables of the law, Adam and Eve partake of the forbidden fruit, the brazen serpent is reared aloft, and punishment supervenes in the shape of death and the realm of Satan.

To the right, the Conception, Crucifixion and Resurrection symbolize redemption, and this is duly impressed on Adam by John the Baptist.

There are two examples of this composition in the galleries of Gotha and Prague, both of them dated 1529.