1472 – Birth of Lucas Cranach in Kronach, High Franconia. Taught painting I
the studio of his father Hans.
1483 – Birth of Martin Luther in Eisleben.
1500-1504 – Cranach is active in Vienna in Humanist circle around Conrad Celtis.
1502 – Foundation of the university of Wittenberg by the Prince Elector
Fredrick the Wise of Saxony.
1505 – Cranach is named official painter of the court of the Prince Elector
in Wittenberg, who has close relations with the Viennese humanist Conrad
Celtis.
1508 – Prince Frederick the Wise confers on Cranach a coat of arms featuring
a heraldic animal, a serpent with outstretched wings and a ruby in his mouth.
This will be used by Cranach from now on as his studio signature. Cranach
visits the emperor Maximilian I and Margaret of Austria in Nuremberg.
1512/13 – Marries Barbara Brengbier daughter of town councilor from Gotha.
1513 – Birth of his son Hans. He will also have 3 daughters, Barbara, Ursula
and Anna.
1515 – Birth of his son Lucas. Both boys will become their father’s
assistants in the studio.
1517 – Luther nails to the gate of the Wittenberg castle his theses against
the granting of indulgences and
other abuses of the Catholic Church.
1519-45 – Cranach is elected town councilor of Wittenberg, he will also serve
as treasurer and burgh master of the city several times.
1519 – First woodcut prints to illustrate the writings of Martin Luther.
Melchior Lotter Junior from Leipzig establishes a printing press in Cranach’s
house. First commissions from the Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg, great
adversary of Luther. Death of Emperor Maximilian I, succeeded by his grandson
Charles V.
1520 – Cranach is named sole apothecary (pharmacist) of Wittenberg.
1522/23 – Cranach runs a prosperous printing business with the goldsmith
Christian Döring.
1523 – Cranach offers asylum to exiled King Christian II of Denmark.
1524 – Cranach accompanies Prince Frederick the Wise to the Diet at
Nuremberg. Meets Albrecht Dürer who draws his portrait.
1525 – Death of Frederick the Wise, succeeded by his brother John the Steadfast.
1529 – With the rise of Protestantism the demand for traditional religious
images declines considerably. Cranach produces new religious paintings
illustrating “Law and Grace” as a new specifically Protestant iconography. He
continues, nevertheless, working for Catholic patrons like Cardinal Albert of
Brandenburg.
1532 – Death of John the Steadfast, succeeded by John Frederick the
Magnanimous.
1537 – Death of his favorite and most talented son Hans on a trip to Italy.
Cranach changes the studio signature, the serpent’s wings are now folded.
1541 – Death of Cranach’s wife Barbara Brengbier.
1547 – Defeat of the Protestant armies gathered in the League of Schmalkade
by the emperor Charles V at the battle of Mühlberg.Cranach’s patron Pricne John Frederick the Magnanimous is
imprisoned. Cranach looses his official position at court.
1550 – Cranach visits the Prince still a prisoner in Augsburg. He meets
Titian whose portrait he draws. His son Lucas takes over the direction of the
studio in Wittenberg.
1552 – John Frederick is released and Cranach follows him to his new
residence in Weimar.
1553 – Death of Cranach in Weimar at 81.
1586 – Death of his son, Lucas Cranach the Younger.
