The Penitence of Saint John Chrysostom
Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472-1553)
1509
- Medium
- Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
- Classification
- Dimensions
- Image/plate/sheet: 26 × 20.2 cm (10 1/4 × 8 in.)
- Culture
- Germany
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- Clarence Buckingham Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Court painter to the Duke of Saxony at Wittenberg, Cranach became a prolific designer, apothecary, political and religious counselor, and propagandist for the court. This is Cranach's most important engraving, in a rare, early impression. It depicts the legendary remorse of the great 4th-century Bishop of Constantinople, who succumbed to the attractions of the emperor's daughter and then wandered the wilderness in penitence.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
