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Another grandiose exhibition at the State Museum fine arts named after Pushkin. Paintings and engravings by Cranachs, the Elder and the Younger were brought to Moscow. Brought from Budapest, Berlin, Madrid, Prague, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod and the German city of Gotha. First of all, these are, of course, the works of Cranach the Elder, about whom we would say that he is more than an artist. He even ruled the city of Wittenberg, in addition to directing the development of German painting from the Renaissance to Mannerism, and she, this painting, stepped from one era to another. He and his son were in demand in every possible way and turned their creative work into a real enterprise. The exhibition at the Pushkin Museum gives a clear idea of what was so special about these Cranachs.
The idea of one of the paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder belongs to Martin Luther. talking modern language, a church reformer produced it. Texts from the Bible confirm the plan - only Christ can save sinners from the torments of hell. Luther believed that all art is completely useless if it does not speak of the greatness of the church. Cranach was a friend of Luther, sponsored the publication of the Bible on German, created ideological art.
“After Dürer, this is the most important name in German history,” says Martin Eburl, director of the Friedenstein Castle Museum in Gotha. - And not only because he was an outstanding master, but also because he is an artist of the Reformation. He worked with images, with composition, with colors to convey new ideas. This is comparable to the influence that the Internet has today.”
"Beware of Cupid's voluptuousness, otherwise Venus will take possession of you," the Latin inscription warns. The famous "Venus and Cupid" by Lucas Cranach the Elder, beautiful, perfect. But, portraying a pagan image, Lucas Cranach the Elder remains a faithful Christian, a fighter for the reformation of the church, an activist in the propaganda of Luther's ideas: art was supposed to serve the cause.
But this did not prevent Lucas Cranach the Elder from taking orders from both Lutherans and Catholics. He was effective manager: owned a pharmacy, created a successful workshop, was elected mayor of the city more than once. Its brand name is a sign of quality. It does not mean that the hand of the greatest master touched this particular painting. The tablet "Lucas Cranach the Elder and Workshop" is a common sight. It takes a lot of effort of specialists to establish the exact authorship. His son - Lucas Cranach the Younger - for a long time copied his father's works, which were very popular, but then he created his own recognizable style. Father and son - a whole era.
“They define a very long, very important period in the history of German art and all of Europe. This is the Northern Renaissance and a gradual transition to the Mannerist style. Chronologically, the activities of father and son cover more than half a century within the 16th century,” notes Vadim Sadkov, curator of the exhibition.
The Cranachs worked in many genres and left a diverse legacy. The basis of the exposition is the Cranach paintings from Russian museums and private collections, as well as "invited" foreign masterpieces. Museums of Gotha, Berlin, Madrid, Prague, Budapest participate. Works from foreign collections in Russia for the first time. The Gotha Museum is a special partner of the exhibition. Pictures from this collection and the funds of the Pushkin Museum have already been seen.
“From this space in 1946, as traces of the war, forty things that are kept in the museum, including Cranach's things brought from there, from Gotha, came to us. Six works of the Cranachs were reunited with those things that we have. This is a special story,” says Marina Loshak, director of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.
Lucas Cranach the Elder became the greatest master in the twentieth century. Modernity has rediscovered and rethought it. His images were used by many artists of the Art Nouveau era, especially expressionists. The title of the exhibition reflects the movement from the Renaissance to Mannerism. Art theorists compare the change in style with a change in the picture of the world, a shift in consciousness. And in the Mannerist idea that the best examples already created, many see parallels with postmodernity. So in the 21st century, on the canvases, which are half a thousand years old, new layers appear - semantic ones.
At the State Museum. A.S. Pushkin started work unique exhibition works of outstanding representatives of the northern Renaissance - the Elder and Younger Cranachs under the title "Cranachs. Between the Renaissance and Mannerism". About a hundred paintings and engravings are exhibited in the capital, which are stored in many European and Russian museums, as well as private collections.
The paintings of Lucas Cranach Sarshego, who stood at the origins of the reformation of German painting, became a real decoration of the exhibition. His pioneering quest for composition and representation led to a break with Renaissance ideals and a final move to Mannerism.
Interestingly, the great master contributed to changes not only in painting, but also in religion. He supported the Reformation of the Church initiated by Martin Luther, who had the idea for one of his paintings. Both reformers were convinced that art should serve the cause and faith.
The exposition of the museum presents many works that have received worldwide recognition. Among them is the painting "Madonna and Child", filled with deep symbolic overtones, where every detail reflects the values of the Christian faith. In the work "Venus and Cupid" the maestro portrayed the Roman goddess of love naked in full height, showing his viewer all the charm and perfection of the heroine of ancient myths.
The heyday of the talent of the engraver came from Cranach the Elder in the period 1506-1516. It was at this time that he created all his significant works, striking the viewer with a variety of stylistic solutions. The wonderful woodcut "The First Tournament" is a multi-figure composition filled with complex genre scenes. Later, the master became interested in the technique of engraving, as well as color graphics on wood.
Lucas Cranach the Younger is known not only as a brilliant master of multi-genre repetitions of his father's originals, but also as the author of talented epitaphs, which he wrote on behalf of wealthy Lutheran clients.
The masterpieces of Lucas Cranach the Elder were rethought in the last century, when many artists began to turn to the creative heritage of the master. The images of his paintings were borrowed by expressionists, and the ideas of mannerism were organically intertwined in a cognitive context with postmodernism. Therefore, in the 21st century, we are discovering new semantic layers in well-known paintings.
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Cranach exhibitions in Russia have never been. Individual works by Lucas Cranach the Elder can be seen in the permanent exhibitions of the Pushkin Museum and the Hermitage. And there is even one work in the museum in Nizhny Novgorod. And the provenance of these works indisputably proves their appearance in Russia in the pre-Soviet period. But now it turns out that for 70 years the Pushkin Museum has kept the works of Cranach the Father and Cranach the Son and other works by Cranach's workshop, which have never been shown to the general public since then. These works were taken out by the USSR trophy team in 1946 from the Thuringian city of Gotha, where the Friedenstein Castle then had the largest collection of Cranachs in Germany. In 1955, literally a few works of the USSR returned to Gotha. But the main part of the collection remained locked in the storeroom of the museum for 70 years. And for the first time in the Pushkin Museum, two parts of the former Cranach collection from Gotha met, supplemented by works from the collections of museums in Berlin, Madrid, Prague, Budapest, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod and private collections. The exhibition "Cranach. Between the Renaissance and Mannerism" is currently taking place in the Pushkin Museum on Volkhonka.
I am not an art critic or an art historian. Therefore, I refer all those interested in the Cranachs to articles on the net, of which there are a fair amount. And here I will show just a few works.
Well, first of all, this unusual work"Christ and Virgin Mary" from Gotha. Here in this work, the influence of the ideas of Martin Luther, who was a close friend of Lucas Cranach the Elder, is visibly felt.
Lucas Cranach the Elder, "Christ and the Virgin Mary", 1507?
The Hermitage's "Venus and Cupid", which the organizers of the exhibition hung in a semicircular niche in the hall as the master's dominant work. For the first time, an artist of Northern Europe dared to portray the goddess of love naked - until that time, only Eve was allowed to "nude".
Lucas Cranach the Elder, Venus and Cupid, 1509
With all the love of Cranach the Elder for the ideal forms of the naked female body, the artist does not forget about the religious morality inherent in German art. The Latin inscription on the painting reads:
"With all your might drive away Cupid's voluptuousness,
Otherwise, Venus will take possession of your blinded soul.
The painting “The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria with Saints Dorothea, Margaret and Barbara” from the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts is another masterpiece of the exposition.
Lucas Cranach the Elder, "The mystical betrothal of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, with Saints Dorothea, Margaret and Barbara", second half of the 1510s
At the feet of Margarita is a dragon - this is a reminder of a miracle: when the girl was thrown into the mouth of the dragon, that monster unharmed her, since the saint had a cross. A tower rises behind Varvara - according to legend, her father imprisoned her daughter in it, having learned about her adoption of Christianity. Dorothea is holding a basket of flowers: before her execution, the girl claimed that “heavenly paradise and the love of the Lord” were already waiting for her. Then one unbeliever, mockingly, asked him to bring roses and paradise fruits from the garden. When a basket of flowers and fruits appeared in Dorothea's hands, many believed in her holiness, seeing such a miracle in winter.
In 1964, Joseph Brodsky dedicated a poem to this famous painting from the Hermitage.
Lucas Cranach the Elder, Madonna and Child under an Apple Tree, 1520-1530
(L. Cranach "Venus with apples")
In a fox cape - herself
smarter than the fox down the hill
forest, which is far away
the slope rinses in the river,
having escaped from the grove where God
hunting sticks in the side
boar sting arrows,
where the trunks rage
leaving the familiar cape,
came under the apple tree
fifteen apples - to them
with his little boy.
tilting my head to the side,
as if past me,
baby squeezing fetus
also looks ahead.
April -- May 1964
Cranach portrayed the red-haired Madonna as a beautiful young woman, reminiscent of a princess from German fairy tales. It is located in an apple orchard against the background of a landscape with a view of Saxony, a castle and mountains. Madonna and Baby Jesus, with delicately emphasized proportions of a child's body, carefully look at the viewer, as if making it clear that they know everything that fate has prepared for them and they are ready to accept it. The look of the elongated eyes of the Mother of God is sad and thoughtful - she knows that she must lose her son. A direct allusion to this is the apple and bread in the hands of the Child, symbols of the atonement for sin.
The exhibition is wonderful. I will say that for the Germans Cranach is the same as Rublev for us. And it must be looked at.
