Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/484

 454 Painting and the same love of the fantastic and grotesque. We allude to Lucas Cranach (1472 — 1553), a native of Kronach in Franconia, whose style in its general characteristics resembles that of Matthius Griinewald, mentioned above, with whom he studied for some time. He was court-painter to three Electors successively, and spent a most prosperous life. Cranach was inferior to Diirer in drawing, in imaginative force, and feeling for truth of expression ; but his large sacred pictures are remarkable for dignity and grace, whilst some of his minor works are full of pleasant humour. Of the former, the Woman taken in Adultery, in the Pinakothek at Munich, and the altar-piece at Weimar, representing the Crucifixion — in which fine portraits of Luther and of the artist himself are introduced — may be cited as good examples ; and the Fountain of Youth, in the Berlin Museum, as an instance of the latter. Cranach' s chief strength was, however, in portraiture, and in subjects suitable for purely realistic treatment. The National Gallery contains a very fine Portrait of a Young Girl, from his hand, and portraits of the celebrities of his day are plentiful in the various Continental collections (Fig. 158). Lucas Cranach, the younger (1515 — 1586), followed successfully in his father's footsteps, and painted many pictures which have doubtless passed as the work of his father. The Cranachs left no disciples : the School of Saxony began with the father and ended with the son. (e) Decline of Art in Germany. After Cranach, Diirer and Holbein had passed away, painting rapidly declined in Germany, as in Italy ; but, before we speak of the artists of the next two centuries,