Douglas Biow, Director
MEZ 3.126, Mailcode A1800, Austin, TX 78712 • 512-232-3470
The “naked pictures” by Lucas Cranach
Thu, February 3, 2011 • 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM • ART 1.120
The Flowering of the Nude: The “Naked Pictures” by Lucas Cranach the Elder and the Culture of Viewing in Renaissance Germany
A lecture by Dr. Elke Anna Werner Institute of Art History, Free University, Berlin
Among the artists of the Renaissance north of the Alps, Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553) painted an exceptional number of nudes. Scholars have expressed little regard for this body of works, ascribing them a merely decorative function within the sphere of the Wittenberg court. More recent research, however, has opened up new perspectives on these “naked pictures”. In her lecture, Dr Elke Anna Werner examines the specific significance of Cranach’s nudes for the changing culture of viewing in the age of the Reformation.
