Lucas Cranach, Elder and Younger, Collected in Vienna

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Penitent St Jerome
1502
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Paradise
1530
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Adam
ca. 1510-20
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Eve
ca. 1510-20
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Fall of Man
ca. 1537-50
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

"Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) was one of the most versatile artists of the Northern Renaissance.  He was a staunch partisan of the Reformation and a close friend of Martin Luther, for whom he produced didactic religious paintings.  He also produced his own erotic ideal of the female nude – a type that has had enduring appeal to the present day.  Little is known of Cranach's early years, except that he was much influenced by the humanist learning prevalent in Vienna, where he spent time in his youth.  Cranach was a prolific artist, leaving behind a great many paintings, engravings, and woodcuts – but in true humanist style he not only served as painter and architectural adviser to the ducal court of Wittenberg but was burgomaster of the town and also owned a bookshop and a pharmacy."

– from The Renaissance in the North (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987)

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Portrait of Princesses Sibylla, Emilia and Sidonia of Saxony
ca. 1535
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Portrait of Margrave Casimir of Brandenburg-Kulmbach
ca. 1520
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Deer Hunt of Elector Frederick of Saxony
1529
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
ca. 1530
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
ca. 1537-50
oil on panel
(trimmed on sides and lower edge)
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lot and his Daughters
1528
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder
Conversion of Saul
ca. 1520
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Lucas Cranach the Younger
Portrait of a Man
1564
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Lucas Cranach the Younger
Portrait of a Woman
1564
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

"Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515-1586) – Younger son of Lucas Cranach the Elder, he trained and worked in the family studio in Wittenberg from a young age, where his responsibilities increased from 1530, particularly following the sudden death of his elder brother Hans in 1537.  In 1550, the year that his father left Wittenberg to follow his patron into exile, Lucas Cranach the Younger became the official head of the family enterprise.  . . .  His output prior to 1550 remains in part undefined, as the influence of his father on his style was so pronounced at that period that it is difficult to distinguish their paintings.  . . .  Lucas Cranach the Younger continued to depict themes that his father had made popular, including portraits of the reformers, religious allegories, and classical subjects."

– from curator's notes at Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Carved Wooden Figures (15th-17th centuries) in Vienna

Tilman Riemenschneider
Adam
ca. 1495-1505
pear wood statuette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Peter Flötner
Adam
ca. 1525
boxwood statuette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Conrad Meit
Adam
ca. 1530-35
boxwood statuette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Conrad Meit
Eve
ca. 1530-35
boxwood statuette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Sculptor working in Germany
Adam
ca. 1565-1600
pear wood statuette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Sculptor working in Germany
Eve
ca. 1565-1600
pear wood statuette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Sculptor working in Germany
Study-Figure for Human Proportions - Male
ca. 1550
boxwood statuette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Sculptor working in Germany
Study-Figure for Human Proportions - Female
ca. 1550
boxwood statuette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Sculptor working in Germany
Figure of Christ
(from a group representing The Flagellation)
ca. 1600
boxwood statuette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Zacharias Hegewald
Dead Christ
ca. 1630
limewood relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

"Regional availability played a large part in determining which wood was chosen for a sculpture, though the properties of individual trees was also a factor.  The hardness of a wood depends on the density of its grain.  Softwoods from evergreens such as cedar and pine are coarse, less dense and easier to carve, whereas hardwoods from deciduous trees, such as oak, boxwood, walnut and limewood, are harder but more durable and allow more elaborate carving and finer details.  In southern Germany, sculptors favoured limewood, but oak was more widely used in northern Germany, the Netherlands, northern France and England.  Walnut was used in Burgundy and France, but in Italy, Spain and the Alpine regions pine or poplar were more popular.  Wood is carved in a similar way to stone.  The design is drawn on a split tree-trunk, the size of which usually determines the dimensions of the finished sculpture, though extra sections can be pieced in.  The form of the sculpture is roughly carved with a broad axe and then shaped with tools such as the narrow axe, flat-headed chisels, gouges and skew-bladed firmers (a kind of chisel with a hooked end used for cutting folds in drapery).  After carving, the surface is normally smoothed with sandpaper or other abrasives."

– from curator's notes at the Victoria & Albert Museum

Hans Peisser
Cleopatra
ca. 1550
pear wood statuette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Daniel Mauch
Group of Erotes
ca. 1520-30
pear wood statuette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

attributed to Michel Erhart
Allegory of Transience
(young woman, young man, and old woman)
ca. 1470-80
painted linden wood statuette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Hans Leinberger
Figure of Death
before 1519
pear wood statuette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Egyptian, Greek and Modern Curiosities (Vienna)

Ancient Egypt
Standing Figure of the Court Official Snofru-nefer
2400 BC
limestone statue (half life-size)
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Egypt
Stele
1850 BC
incised and painted limestone
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Egypt
Triad of Memphis
(Ptah, Sachmet and Nefertem)
640-610 BC
faience
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Roman Egypt
Sarcophagus Fragment
AD 130-150
painted stucco and glass
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Roman Egypt
Mummy Portrait of a Woman
AD 161-192
encaustic on wood
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greek Culture on Cyprus
Votive Statue of a Man
550-525 BC
limestone
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greek Culture in South Italy
Hydria
(Return of Hephaestus to Olympus)
525 BC
painted terracotta
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Hephaestus Alone

His heart is like a boat that sets forth alone
on the ocean and goes far out from him,
as Aphrodite proceeds on her pleasure journeys.
He pours the gold down the runnels
into a great mystery under the sand.
When he pulls it up by the feet
and knocks off the scale, it is a god.
What is it she finds with those men
that equals this dark birthing? The deities
remain invisible in their pretty gardens
of grass and violets, of daffodils and jasmine.
Even his wife lives like that. Going on yachts,
speaking to the captains in the familiar.
Let them have it, the noons and rain and joy.
He makes a world here out of frog songs
and packed earth. He made his wife
so she contains the green-fleshed
melons of Lindos, thalo blue of the sea,
and one ripe peach at five in the morning.
He fashioned her by the rules, with love,
made her with rage and disillusion.

– Linda Gregg (1942-2019)

Ancient Greece
Signet Ring
(Aphrodite and Eros)
4th-3rd century BC
gold
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Grave Stele of Parmeniskos 
200 BC (Hellenistic)
limestone
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Head of Serapis
2nd century BC (Hellenistic)
sard intaglio
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous European Maker
Head of Young Hercules
18th century
carnelian intaglio
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous European Maker
Apollo Kitharoedus
ca. 1700-1750
sard intaglio
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous European Maker
Specimen mounted to resemble Trees
16th century
coral
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Italian Maker
Adoration of the Shepherds
ca. 1650
oil on alabaster in gold and silver frame
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Art from Ancient Rome, Preserved in Vienna

Ancient Rome
Love Scene
1st-2nd century AD
mosaic
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Isis
AD 100-150
marble statue (two colors)
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Head of Jupiter
1st century AD
bronze
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Table Leg - Satyr and Maenad
2nd century AD
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Sacrificial Bull
1st century AD
marble relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Sarcophagus - The Muses
AD 130-200
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

To the Muses

Whether on Ida's shady brow,
     Or in the chambers of the East,
The chambers of the sun, that now
     From ancient melody have ceased;

Whether in Heav'n ye wander fair,
     Or the green corners of the earth,
Or the blue regions of the air,
    Where the melodious winds have birth;

Whether on crystal rocks ye rove,
     Beneath the bosom of the sea
Wand'ring in many a coral grove,
     Fair Nine, forsaking Poetry!

How have you left the ancient love
     That bards of old enjoyed in you!
The languid strings do scarcely move!
     The sound is forced, the notes are few!

– William Blake (written at about age fourteen, first published in 1783)

Ancient Rome
Gravestone with Five Portrait Busts
65-35 BC
limestone
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Gravestone of Titus Calidius Severus
1st century AD
limestone
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Head of Young Woman
AD 120-130
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Head of Athlete
1st century AD
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Head of Goddess
1st century AD
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Head of Meleager
1st-2nd century AD
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Head of Old Man
AD 50-100
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Head of Pan
1st-2nd century AD
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna