Saint Christopher Carrying the Christ Child

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Saint Christopher Carrying the Christ Child

Artist Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472-1553)

Date1506/1509

Dimensions11 1/4 in. (28.6 cm); W. 7 7/8 in. (20.1 cm)

MediumChiaroscuro woodcut

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineWilliam J. Hitchcock Fund in memory of Grace J. Hitchcock

Object number

2007.94

Not on View

Label TextLucas Cranach became court painter to the Elector of Saxony in 1505. In addition to painting, he designed woodcuts, stained glass, and weapons; was burgomeister of Wittenberg; and founded a pharmacy that his descendants ran for 300 years. Cranach began making woodcuts in 1502. A close friend of the protestant reformer Martin Luther (1438–1546), he designed the woodcuts for the first edition of Luther’s German bible of 1552. This image shows the third-century martyr St. Christopher carrying the Christ Child across a raging stream. It is a chiaroscuro woodcut—a technique that imitates the appearance of toned drawings by utilizing more than one block to print the image. A line block cut with the design—in this case, using black ink—is printed onto paper; then a block of flat color (here, mushroom brown) is printed over the design. Cranach used the white of the paper for highlights. The colors of this print remain extremely fresh.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Looks Good on Paper: Masterworks and Favorites, Oct. 10, 2014-Jan. 11, 2015.