Saint Christopher (c. 1509): Art, History and Details

Saint Christopher (c. 1509) 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:

In Hans Burgkmair's Emperor Maximilian on Horseback, the black outline and white highlights are printed and the paper is washed blue. In Saint Christopher, however, while the black line block is still printed, color is now printed with a tone block and unprinted areas of the white paper act as highlights. Although Saint Christopher is dated 1506, it was probably made after 1508 when Cranach was granted permission by Duke Friedrich to use the coat of arms with a winged serpent seen hanging from the tree. Further, it was only after the artist returned from a trip to the Netherlands in 1508 that he probably would have learned about the use of a tone block by his rival Burgkmair. He then produced two woodcuts using tone blocks—Saint Christopher and Venus and Cupid—predating them to 1506 to claim the invention of chiaroscuro woodcuts for himself.

Object facts

• Title: Saint Christopher
• Date: c. 1509
• Creator attribution: Lucas Cranach (German, 1472–1553)
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Print
• Technique: chiaroscuro woodcut
• Collection: PR - Chiaroscuro
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1941.40

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. Ralph King

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.