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The passion of Christ by Lukas cranach the elder. Iconography

Great German painter, Lucas Cranach the Elder (born at Kronach in upper Franconia in1472, died in Weimar in 1553) became famous in the field of the printed graphics. He created 10 engraving opuses and more than 200 woodcuts not only drawing the sketches for the carvers, but also all the way preparing the wooden plates for printing

The Passion of Christ as per Hollstein 10√23 (Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Hollstein. German Engraving, Etching and Woodcut, ca. 1400√1700. Vol. I, Amsterdam, 1954√... hereinafter referred to as Hollstein) is one of the best works by Cranach as a master of woodcuts. The opus of woodcuts contains fourteen sheets printed in Wittenberg in 1509 in form of a book named in Latin as follows: PASSIO/D. N. IESV CHRISTI/VENVSTISSIMIS/IMAGINIBVS ELEGANTER/EXPRESSA/AB/Illustrissimi Saxoniae Ducis, Pictore Luca Cranogio/Anno. 1509. The artistic level of the illustrations by Lucas Cranach is so high that they were considered by the contemporaries to be really outstanding works. All the engravings are so superb that it is very probable that the wooden panels were cut by Cranach himself and the first prints were performed also by himself. As well as the famous woodcuts by Albrecht Duerer, they were often reprinted.

Lucas Cranach the Elder. The title page of the woodcut series The Passions of Christ. 1509. Amsterdam. 1616. 17,5 x 24,3 cm. The State Hermitage Museum

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The State Hermitage collection includes nearly full opus of the Passion, excluding only one item (the Lamentation), in the prints from different times, including the ones with the text on the reverse side, and the mostly interesting colored sheets in watercolor and gouache techniques. The Passion opus woodcuts were printed in Wittenberg for six times in the period 1509√1570, and one time in Amsterdam in 1616. The two first ⌠people▓s■ editions of Apocalypse by Albrecht Duerer (printed in Nuremberg by Anthon Coberger in 1498 both in Latin and in German) set an example for Cranach.

The rest woodcuts by Duerer were created in 1496√1510, but published only in 1510 bearing the text on the reverse sides of the sheets, i. e. after the print of Passion by Cranach (1509). Cranach has much in common with Duerer not only in the idea of publishing but also in the character of the woodcuts. Cranach surely had to be acquainted with the famous engravings by Martin Shongauer on this subject. However, the work by Cranach is a totally independent one.

In the story of the Passion of Christ, two spiritual worlds are compared: the high spiritual world of Jesus Christ and his disciples and the low morale world of his enemies, a spiteful and cruel one. In all the episodes, Christ has to suffer both physically and spiritually to atone the original sin of the human.

The Opus opens with an item, Christ on the Mount of Olives, (Hollstein 10). The composition is a traditional one: Christ is praying in the distance, in the foreground ≈ the sleeing disciples, the ones whom Jesus has asked to stay awake: Peter to the left, John and his brother Jacob the Elder to the right. ⌠Having walked the distance of a stone-throw, he knelt on a rock and prayed■ (Luke 22:41).

The pathetic moment is presented, when Jesus addressed to his Father as follows: ⌠O my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt■ (Matt 26:39). Jesus prays on the Mount Eleon, with his face raised up to three angels holding a cross and a cup (the Cup of Grail). Here is also the entrance to the cavern.

The cavern is a symbol of the beginning and the end of the earth life of Christ (see also ⌠The Entombment of Christ■, Hollstein 22). In the graphic art of Cranach, we often come across the images of caverns in the rocks and caves, e.g. in ⌠The Temptation of St. Anthony■, 1506 (Hollstein 76) and in ⌠St.George Slaying the Dragon■ (Hollstein 82). A tree with the roots struggled out of the soil and bangling in the air grows above the cavern near which Jesus is praying. It has a symbolic meaning. Remember, the Lord placed the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in Eden (Gen 2:9).

In the Middle Ages, starting from the Romanesque times, it was used to present the Tree of Life with roots hanging naked, these being the essence of all life. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil usually was associated with the Old Testament and the Tree of Life was associated with the New Testament. Such a tree with suspended roots was placed by Cranach in two other sheets of ⌠The Passion■, namely in ⌠The Entombment (Hollstein 22) and ⌠The Resurrection■ (Hollstein 23), in which the Artist put the coats of arms of the Saxony electors on it. The landscape in Christ on the Mount of Olives is very emotional, which is rather characteristic of Cranach. It looks like a real one. The wind makes the leaves tremble, the light penetrate through the deep darkness. This is not an abstract background the picture, but a place where the divine deeds take place.

It is also rather characteristic that Cranach included a self-portrait into the crowd scene in ⌠The Capture of Christ■ (Hollstein 11). By doing this Cranach establishes his connection with the holy deeds. He painted himself as a shoulder-length image in the crowd in the right corner just behind St. Peter. His face is full of grief from understanding that the ⌠power of darkness has come■ (Luke 22:53).

In his analysis of Lucas Cranach works, J. Jahn points out in the annotation to his work (Jahn, Johannes. Lucas Cranach als Graphiker. ≈ Leipzig: Zeeman Verlag, 1955. S. 68) that this is the earliest among the Cranach▓s self-portraits known to the specialists. However, this is disputable. U. Steinmann▓s idea that in the ⌠David and Abigail■ woodcut, Cranach presented himself and his sweetheart, looks as convincing (Koepplin, Dieter und Falk, Tilman. Lucas Cranach. Gemalde, Zeichnungen, Druckgraphik. Ausstellung im Kunstmuseum Basel 15. Juni bis 8. September 1974, Bd. II., Basel, Stuttgart: Birkhauser Verlag, 1976, S. 562, Kat. Nr. 457). ⌠David and Abigail■ woodcut was dated to 1509, as well as ⌠The Capture of Christ■. It is hard to tell which of these woodcuts was created first.

Lucas Cranach the Elder. Christ on the Mount of Olives. 1509. Woodcut. 17.0 x 25.0 cm. The State Hermitage Museum

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It is interesting that the master, presenting Abigail advocating Nabal (1 Sam 25), includes the gloves in her gifts to David. Abigail paid him honor by that means acknowledging him to be her master. The gloves bear the meaning of human dignity also in other works by Cranach including some items in ⌠The Passions■ opus. On the backside of the sheet ⌠Christ on the Mount of Olives■ (Hollstein 10), of one of the prints of ⌠The Passion■ in the book by M. Anton Corvinus, Kurtze und einfeltige Auslegurig der Episteln und Evangelien... Wittenberg, Georg Rhaur, 1543, the German text about the arrest of Christ was printed. By thumbing the book, one looking at the next sheet with the image of ⌠The Capture of Christ■ could also read about the Event on the backside of the previous sheet (Hollstein 11). In the text, the history of the arrest of Jesus is compared with the Psalm VIII and with the pertaining parts of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. In the Postilla, the part of the content of the Gospel according to Saint John is presented (John 18:3), particularly the place describing the scene of servants of high priests, scribes and Pharisees came bearing torches and a lamp. Exactly this plot was presented by Cranach. The text contains also the story of the betrayal by Judas Iscariot. Cranach painted Judas in the crowd to the left holding a purse with coins. The text also mentions his mean kissing marked Jesus for those that had come to arrest him. The woodcut does not contain this episode. Two different moments of this story are presented in the woodcut: Peter still aims for a blow with the sword to cut off an ear of the servant of the high priest Malchus, however, Jesus already plants the cut-off ear back ≈ ⌠Lord touched his ear and healed him■(Luke 22:51). At the end of the text an interesting remark is placed, taking the reader back to the modern times by informing that the servants of the contemporary high priests have deaf right ears.

The figure of Malchus is of particular interest. He wears a boot on only one foot, the other one being bare.

In those days in Germany untidiness was generally condemned, it was used in presenting so-called ⌠soldiers of fortune■ (Koepplin und Falk, S. 472√473, Kat. Nr. 311). It is remarkable that the name of the slave is written as ⌠Malchos■ which corresponds to the medieval legendary idea that he was a Greek.

The legends stemming from the 13th century tell about the Wandering Jew (Ahasverus) ≈ the person who has wished death to Jesus and was destined for it to live up to a doomsday. There are variants of this ancient legend in which the Wandering Jew was identified with different characters, among which Malhos the Greek also presents. It is very probably that Cranach knew these plots. In the art of the 15th century, it is possible to track the image of the Wandering Jew. Martin Schongauer allots particular importance to the person of Malhos in the series of his engravings ⌠The Passions of Christ■ (about 1480; L. 19√30. L. ≈ here and further, ≈ Lehrs, Max. Geschichte und kritischer Katalog des deutschen, niederlandischen und franzosischen Kupferstichs im XV. Jahrhundert. Bd. I√IX, Wien, 1908√1934).

In this opus, the servant of the high priest Malchus persecutes Jesus from the moment of his capture: Malchus threateningly shakes a club (⌠The Capture of Christ■, L. 20), raises his hand to strike Jesus on the cheek (⌠Christ before Anna■, L. 21), guards the Holy Sepulcher (⌠The Resurrection■, L. 30).

In ⌠The Capture of Christ■ by Cranach, Christ is clad in chiton, Peter in chiton and a himation, i.e. in antique clothes; the same is with Judas Iskariote. All the rest are dressed fancifully, but according to the European fashion of the Cranach▓s times. The figure of a magnificently dressed man can be associated with the head of the soldiers (captain) that has come to arrest Jesus into a garden behind the brook Cedron (John 18:12). In XV century, in Italy and Germany, it was a commonplace to present this person standing out by the luxury of his clothes from the crowd surrounding Jesus in the renditions of ⌠The Capture of Christ■ theme. We can recollect here the engravings by Master E.S. (L. 38; c. 1460) and Master I.A.M. of Zwolle (L. 4; c. 1470); where the man is presented in graceful armour bearing also a banner.

In ⌠The Passions of Christ■ by Schongauer (L. 1930) the captain▓s clothes are richly decorated. This character is identified in five engravings of the Opus (L. 20, 21, 24√26). He arrests Jesus, escorts him to the high priest, also to Pilate, vigilantly presents with a rope ready among the people in the court, runs ahead of the others during Carrying the Cross, dragging Jesus with a rope.

Impatient captain does not want any delays in the execution procedure, so, besides his arms, he providently carries a hammer and nails to nail Jesus down to the cross. Evidently, Schongauer identifies him in connection with the Wandering Jew (Ahasverus), who wished Jesus to die as soon as possible.

Cranach depicts this Roman as raging and shameless: the captain has seized Jesus by the hair and shows him an obscene combination of fingers.

In the distance, behind the fence of the Gethsemane garden, fortifications, very characteristic for the Germany of those times, are presented. The similar landscape with buildings of medieval times can be seen in the items ⌠The Lamentation■ (Hollstein 21) and ⌠The Resurrection■ (Hollstein 23).

The artist stressed the universal and for all times actual character of the sacred events: so it was, so it is, so it will be for ever all over the world and, certainly, in the Germany of his time.

Lucas Cranach the Elder. Christ before Annas. 1509. 17.0 x 25.0 cm. Woodcut. Mid-XVI century. Watercolor, gouache. The State Hermitage Museum

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Subject core of the Opus is suffering of Christ on his way to Golgotha, at first being taken to Annas, a Jewish high priest, to Caiaphas, then to Herod, the tyrant of Judea, and after all to Pontius Pilate. Only in the Gospel according to Saint John (John 18:12√14) it is mentioned, that Christ was taken to Annas. Cranach follows this text, describing the stages of the way of the Passion of Jesus.

The researchers studying Cranach▓s woodcuts name the plot of the item (Hollstein 13) differently: ⌠Christ before Annas■ or ⌠Christ before Caiaphas■. It is not accidentally so. In both items (Hollstein 12 and Hollstein 13) the artist shows that the high priest interrogating Christ in an impulse of anger tearing his clothes.

In these days, the position of the Judean high priest was occupied simultaneously by several persons (Matt 26:59). Proceeding from the sequence of sheets in the bound books it is possible to state that in the woodcut (Hollstein 13) Jesus stands before Annas (Koepplin und Falk, S. 473, Kat. Nr. 312). The details of the subject, however, (e.g. the presence of the disciple knowing the high priest) can be attributed to the scene with Caiaphas as well.

So, Anna sits on a small pedestal, under a canopy decorated with a garland of fruits and leaves. The garland was used in the ancient times for decorating an animal chosen for a religious sacrifice. It was associated with honoring and feasting.

One person from the group escorting Jesus, bends to Annas ingratiatingly reporting to him something assisting himself by gesticulation. This obscene person who stands bareheaded in the high priest presense can be considered to be one of the false witnesses against Jesus (Matt 26:59√61; Mark 14:55√59).

⌠For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together.■ (Mark 14:56). May be the man reports to the high priest about hearing a phrase: ⌠I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.■ (Mark 14:58). The high priest asked Jesus about his doctrine (John 19:19), whether he stated that he is ⌠the Christ, the Son of God■ (Mark 14:61).

Jesus answered all these questions with the phrase: ⌠Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.■ (Matt 26:74). Having heard such a ⌠blasphemy■, the high priest tears his clothes in rage. He announces that the man has witnessed against himself and is worth a death penalty (Matt 27:65-66; Mark 14:63√64). They take Jesus to Pilate to put the conviction into practice.

Continuation follows