"Cranach: Artist and Innovator" at Compton Verney

“Master Lucas is a crude painter. He could have been less hard on the female sex both because they are God’s creatures and because they are our mothers. He should at the same time have painted the Pope in a more worthy, I mean more devilish, guise.” (Martin Luther) The German Renaissance painter and printmaker Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1533) was a close friend and ardent supporter of Martin Luther (1483-1546), the leading figure of the Reformation, yet the theologian did not appear to reciprocate in his own appreciation for the artist’s work. Cranach’s paintings and prints are on view for visitors to make their own judgement at Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park, near Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire. Four paintings from the Compton Verney collection are the basis of the exhibition, with generous loans sourced from UK institutions, including the Queen’s Collection and the National Gallery in London. With only thirteen paintings by Cranach and a handful of prints the exhibition is hardly a retrospective, but it provides a whistle-stop tour of the artist’s career and sets out to demonstrate his profound influence on contemporary artists today. Cranach’s Life at Court The exhibition is organised thematically, with the first room dedicated to Cranach’s life at court in the service of the Electors. The artist spent almost 50 years as court painter to the Electors of…