Now, this shall be a challenge for our Doper community. You see, I have been trying to find a copy of a painting, ideally on the web since that seems to be the place likely to have it, for over 2 years.
As a side point, i will mention that I saw the painting in a cd booklet that came with Saviour Machine’s Legend Part II cd. http://www.saviourmachine.com If you really want to see what it looks like, go to their discography and look at their single called, “Behold, a Pale Horse”. It has the pale horse of the apocaplyse on the front(that’s the painting).
Obviously that painting is a detail from a larger work. The artist listed in the back of the booklet is Werkstatt L. Cranach.
I know that Lucas the elder Cranach was a painter, but in all the volumes I’ve looked up, that painting doesn’t appear. He has a painting called 4 Horseman, but that isn’t it. You see, werkstatt means workshop in English, so it must be from his workshop or something like that. Any help would be appreciated. We can do this!!!
“Werkstatt” means “studio” or “workshop”, so attributing the
painting to “Werkstatt L. Cranach” means that the painting
came from L(ucas) Cranach’s school or studio, and was presumably done by one or more of his students, but
art scholars are unable to agree on, or even discern, who it might have been.
You might find a reproduction of the painting if you search under “Lucas Cranach”, since works produced by unknown pupils are usually found under the master’s name.
It is kinda hard to tell from the tiny album cover, but it is clear that this is NOT the work of Lucas Cranach the Elder, nor of Lucas Cranach the Younger. The artists’ styles are far different from the album cover, the colors are way too bright, there are plenty of reasons why this can’t be by Cranach. Most likely it came from an apprentice who used Cranach’s studio name for the prestige, which was common in those times.
It would seem to me that if you’ve really spent 2 years researching this painting, it would have occured to you to write to the band and ask them about the painting. I’ve worked on plenty of CD covers and I sure wouldn’t have minded if someone asked about my source material, I would have got a kick out of answering the question.
I fact I would have trouble even placing the artist in the same decade as the Cranachs. My first reaction upon seeing the photo, was that it was a Goya or an El Greco, but if they credit it to the Crenach studio, I’m sure that’s the origin. Whoever the artist was, he was WAY before his time, which is probably why he used the more famous studio name. .
The reason that you haven’t found this painting (and why it looks so odd) is that it is a woodcut that the band artist has added color to (I study northern Renaissance art)–This is certainly within Cranach’s time and place; I know this woodcut well, but I can’t for certain remember whose it is, but it very well could be Cranach. That it is a woodcut would explain why they attributed it to his workshop.
I don’t have anything at home that includes it, and I doubt you’ll find it on the web (if someone wants an apocalyptic horsemen picture they usually use Durer).
Hope this helps. Next time I’m at school I’ll look up the date on it-- I’d guess sometime before 1515.
It looks to me like it could have been the Matthias Gruenewald, who painted the Isenheim Altarpiece. But I don’t remember my art history well enough to be sure that
he didn’t come before Cranach, which would mean that I’m talking out of my ass.
Bah! Amateurs!
It is indeed a colorised (and reversed! How clever. . .) reproduction of a woodcut print by Lucas the Younger’s workshop, originally produced as an illustration for the 1534 Wittenburg Lutherbibel. I realized that I did have an illustration at home-- this should be relatively accessible: A. Hyatt Mayor, “Prints and People” (Princeton U. Press, 1980), fig. 264.
There might be a website that has all the illustrations from that bible on line-- may be worthwhile to check on it.
BIBLE]. EMSER, Hieronymus. Das naw testament nach lawt der Christliche(n) kirchen bewerte(n) text, corrigirt, vn(d) widerumb zu recht gebracht. Dresden, Wolfgang Stöckel, 1527. Folio. With 19 full-page Apocalypse woodcuts by Cranach, full-page woodcut title-page printed in red and black, one full-page woodcut (once repeated), and seven half-page woodcuts in text by Georg Lemberger, fourteen woodcut initials, 22 small woodcuts, partially coloured, pasted in margins. Contemporary blind-stamped leather over wooden boards. $47,500
BMC STC German, p. 111; Darlow-Moule 4191.
First edition of the Emser New Testament of 1527, presented as a Roman Catholic refutation of Luther’s translation, with the famous Cranach woodcuts and in a fine contemporary binding.
This doesn’t really complicate things at all-- it IS Werkstatt, because in the period printmaking technique the “artist” (Lucas) would design the print, which would be transferred to the woodblock, then a skilled woodcarver would cut out the design (a guy who belonged to the carpentry guild rather than the painter’s guild. . .), and some other grunts would ink and print the dang thing. At the time they would have designated the participants Zeichner or Inventor (the designer), Holzschneider (wood-cutter), and Drucker (printer) (the publisher was another person in line after this). So all of Lucas’ woodcuts, even if he did design and draw the things, are necessarily workshop productions (an exception at the time is Durer, who sometimes did do his own carving, but by the time of his really great stuff he was leaving the woodwork to the professionals). Caveat: If the piece were actually designed by one of Lucas’ pupils (a possibility), it’s still “Lucas’”, legally,at the time, as all production of a workshop apprentice/journeyman “belonged” to the workshop master until they went out on their own (sort of propreitary whatever).
Wow, I can’t believe how much help has been given on this. Yeah, I emailed the band a long time ago, but got no response. I’m surprised Eric Clayton responded to your email, omni-not. Has Anyone been able to locate a picture of the original woodcut?
