A Tournament (1506): Art, History and Details

A Tournament (1506) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Lucas Cranach (German, 1472–1553).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Tournaments in the age of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian were not the serious affairs of the Middle Ages, nor did they reflect actual methods of warfare, which relied on heavy cannons and mercenaries. Instead, they provided amusing entertainment for the aristocracy. This complex design, containing numerous combatants jousting with lances, was based on events that took place in the Wittenberg marketplace. Given Cranach's position as painter to the Saxon court, his workshop would probably have been responsible for the various painted decorations associated with such tournaments.

Object facts

• Title: A Tournament
• Date: 1506
• Creator attribution: Lucas Cranach (German, 1472–1553)
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Print
• Technique: woodcut
• Collection: PR - Woodcut
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1922.246

Collection credit

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.