ART TRACKERSConnecting fine art to people
Platform OverviewPlatform SecurityPricingTechnology OverviewTags & PlaquesWhat is UAINLegal & Compliance
GovernmentTribal NationsArtistsUniversity & CollegesServices
InstitutionsExploreMuseum Collections
Artists
Why Art TrackersAboutContactBlogDocumentationCareers
Request demo
Platform OverviewPlatform SecurityPricingTechnology OverviewTags & PlaquesWhat is UAINLegal & Compliance
GovernmentTribal NationsArtistsUniversity & CollegesServices
InstitutionsExploreMuseum Collections
Artists
Why Art TrackersAboutContactBlogDocumentationCareers
Request demo
Art Trackers logo
ART TRACKERS
Connecting fine art to people

Connecting fine art to people. Preserving cultural legacy through technology.

Platform

FeaturesHow It WorksSecurityIntegrations

Government

For Cities & CountiesComplianceResourcesCase Studies

Resources

DocumentationHelp CenterBlog

Company

About UsCareersNewsContact Us

© 2026 Art Trackers LLC. All rights reserved.

Privacy PolicyTerms of ServiceAccessibility
    Museum collections / Art Institute of Chicago
    The Crucifixion
    Lucas Cranach the Elder. The Crucifixion, 1538. The Art Institute of Chicago. Public domain (CC0).
    AT-00001098

    Public data from the Art Institute of Chicago. Learn more

    The Crucifixion

    by Lucas Cranach the Elder

    Inscriptions

    Inscribed: [device of serpent with lowered wings] / 153[8] (on cross)

    Provenance

    Sir Fairfax Cartright (d. 1928), Aynho Park, Banbury [according to letter from Robert Langton Douglas to Charles Worces-ter, Nov. 25, 1928, in curatorial file]. Julius Böhler, Munich, 1928 [according to receipt and other records in the registrar’s office.]; sold to Charles H. Worcester, Chicago, Sept. 1928; on loan to the AIC from 1928; given to the AIC, 1947.

    Exhibition history

    New York, Kleinberger, Loan Exhibition of German Primitives for the Benefit of the American Red Cross, 1928, no. 28. Art Institute of Chicago, Loan Exhibition of Old Masters, 1928–29 (no cat.). New York, Van Die-men Galleries, Exhibition of Paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553), 1929, no. 12. Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Loan Exhibition of Religious Art from the Fourth Century to the Present Time, 1930, no. 34. Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, 1933, no. 13. Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, 1934, no. 11. Art Institute of Chicago, Masterpieces of Religious Art, 1954, pp. 22–23.

    Publications

    Harry Adsit Bull, Jr., “Seen in the Galleries,” International Studio 91, 379 (1928), pp. 65 (ill.), 78. “Early German Paintings at Kleinberger’s,” Art News 27, 5 (1928), p. 14 (ill.). Frank Jewett Mather, Jr., “An Exhibition of German Primitives,” Arts 14 (1928), pp. 309–10 (ill.). D[aniel] C[atton] R[ich], “A Crucifixion by Lucas Cranach the Elder,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 23 (1929), pp. 6–7 (ill.). Frank E. Washburn Freund, “Ausstellung altdeutscher Malerei in den F. Kleinberger Galleries zu New York,” Belvedere 8 (1929), p. 285. The Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection, 1932, p. 191. Max J. Friedländer and Jakob Rosenberg, Die Gemälde von Lucas Cranach, Berlin, 1932,, p. 85, no. 302, fig. 302; rev. Eng. ed., 1978, pp. 144–45, no. 377, fig. 377. Charles L. Kuhn, A Catalogue of German Paintings of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in American Collections, Cambridge, Mass., 1936, pp. 39–40, no. 108. Daniel Catton Rich, ed., Catalogue of the Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection of Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings, Chicago, 1938, p. 39, no. 34, pl. 36. Oskar Thulin, Cranach-Altäre der Reforma-tion, Berlin, 1955, pp. 36–46. The Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection, 1961, pp. 109–10, 150 (ill.). A. Schacher, “Crucifixion (in Art),” in New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 4, Washington, D.C., 1967, p. 494, fig. 17. John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago, London, 1970, pp. 250 (ill.), 279. A. Ian Fraser, A Catalogue of the Clowes Collec-tion, Indianapolis, 1973, p. 176. Werner Schade, Die Maler-Fami-lie Cranach, Dresden, 1974, pp. 86, 388. Colin Eisler, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian, Oxford, 1977, pp. 24–25. Morse 1979, p. 84. Laurinda S. Dixon, “The Crucifixion by Lucas Cranach the Elder: A Study in Lutheran Reform Iconography,” Perceptions: An Annual Publica-tion of the Indianapolis Museum of Art 1 (1981), pp. 36, 42, fig. 6. Albert G. Hess, “Pictorial Representations as Sources for Histori-cal Criminology,” Criminal Justice History 2 (1981), pp. 65–70, fig. 1. D[ieter] K[oepplin], in Martin Luther und die Reformation in Deutschland: Ausstellung zum 500. Geburtstag Martin Luthers, exh. cat., Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, 1983, p. 372, under no. 494. R[enate] K[roll], in Kunst der Reformation-szeit, exh. cat., Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 1983, p. 365, under no. E 60. Samuel Y. Egerton, Jr., Pictures and Punishment. Art and Criminal Prosecution during the Florentine Renaissance, Ithaca, N.Y., and London, 1985, p. 192 n. 23. Heinrich Magirius, “Der Cranachaltar in der St. Wolf-gangskirche zu Schneeberg: 1, Geschichte des Cranachsaltar,” Zeitschrift für Kunsttechnologie und Konservierung 6 (1992), pp. 299–300. Stephan Klingen, Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie Dessau: Die deutschen Gemälde des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts, Weimar, 1996, pp. 30, 34, under nos. 16, 17. Mitchell B. Merback, The Thief, the Cross, and the Wheel: Pain and the Spectacle of Punishment in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, Chicago, 1998, pp. 292–95, figs. 104, 115. Mitchell B. Merback, “Torture and Teaching: The Reception of Lucas Cranach the Elder’s Martyrdom of the Twelve Apostles in the Protestant Era,” Art Journal 57 (1998), pp. 21–22, fig. 7. Martha Wolff in Martha Wolff et al., Northern European and Spanish Paintings before 1600 in the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 2008, pp. 353-58, ill.

    Quick Overview

    Artist
    Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472–1553)
    Date
    1538
    Medium
    Oil on panel
    Dimensions
    121.1 × 82.5 cm (47 3/4 × 32 1/2 in.); Framed: 147.4 × 109 × 7.7 cm (58 × 42 7/8 × 3 in.)
    Type
    Painting
    Classification
    oil on panel
    Style
    16th Century
    Place
    Germany
    Department
    Painting and Sculpture of Europe
    Credit line
    Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection
    Accession no.
    1947.62

    More by Lucas Cranach the Elder in museum collections

    • Eve

      Lucas Cranach the Elder

      1533–37 · Painting

      Public collection via the Art Institute of ChicagoAT-00000805
    • Portrait of Magdalena of Saxony, Wife of Elector Joachim II of Brandenburg

      Lucas Cranach the Elder

      c. 1529 · Painting

      Public collection via the Art Institute of ChicagoAT-00001339
    • Adam

      Lucas Cranach the Elder

      1533–37 · Painting

      Public collection via the Art Institute of ChicagoAT-00001536
    • Lukas Spielhausen

      Lucas Cranach the Elder

      1532 · Painting

      Public collection via the Metropolitan Museum of ArtAT-00014787

    Open-access museum data

    This record comes from the open-access collection data that the Art Institute of Chicago publishes for unrestricted use (Creative Commons Zero). Art Trackers shows a selection of the museum's published fields. The Art Institute of Chicago is not an Art Trackers client and has not reviewed or endorsed this page; the museum's own website is the authoritative record.

    • View this work at the Art Institute of Chicago
    • The Art Institute of Chicago: open-access terms

    Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.

    Open-access museum record · AT-00001098

    Powered by Art Trackers