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Course: Europe 1300 - 1800 > Unit 6
Lesson 3: Cranach and Altdorfer- Lucas Cranach the Elder, Saint Maurice — a Black saint in the Renaissance
- Cranach, Law and Gospel (Law and Grace)
- Cranach, Adam and Eve
- Cranach's Adam and Eve
- Cranach the Elder, Cupid complaining to Venus
- Cranach the Elder, Judith with the Head of Holofernes
- Altdorfer, the Battle of Issus
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Lucas Cranach the Elder, Saint Maurice — a Black saint in the Renaissance
Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, Saint Maurice, c. 1520–25, oil on linden, 137.2 x 39.4 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
A conversation with Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Smarthistory.
Video transcript
(jazz music) - [Man] We're in the
metropolitan museum of art, looking at a painting by
Lucas Cranach the Elder. It's a painting that
should not be hanging by itself on a wall. It shows St. Maurice, but it was originally part
of a much larger altarpiece. It would have been just
one of many panels. - [Woman] The altarpiece from
which this painting comes was located in what is
today Germany in Halle, it was commissioned by
a very famous Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg, who
was the most important member of the Catholic church
in the Holy Roman Empire. - [Man] And Albert amassed the
largest collection of relics and reliquaries in Western Europe. He had hundreds and hundreds of relics. A relic is a physical
remnant of a saintly figure of a spiritual figure. It might be a body part, it could be the finger of a saint or it might be a piece of cloth. But an object that had
great spiritual power so much so that elaborate
containers were built in honor of the sacred objects. - [Woman] And the reason we mentioned that he had this impressive
collection of relics. He had 8,200 relics. Is that this painting is
actually a representation of a life size reliquary of Saint Maurice that was in the collection of Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg. - [Man] The painting survives. But unfortunately the
original reliquary does not. It was destroyed in a fire. This painting was produced before the destruction of the reliquary. Although it's important to note that it was painted
probably from a watercolor made of the reliquary not
from the Relic query itself. - [Woman] Before the
reliquary was destroyed, it and more than 300 other of
these important reliquaries were actually painted in watercolor. So we still have that book that shows us what these reliquaries
would have looked like. This painting is looking
to that watercolor and the reliquary was
one of the most important in this collection because Saint Maurice was the patron Saint of
the Holy Roman Empire since the 10th century. - [Man] The Holy Roman
Empire was a political entity in Western and central Europe, basically what is now Germany, Switzerland and it was headed by
the Holy Roman Emperor who at this time was Charles V who fashioned himself as the inheritor of the great medieval
empire of Charlemagne. - [Woman] When this painting was produced, which is sometime around 1520-1525. The idea of the Holy
Roman empire is important to keep in mind as is a Catholic
Cardinal because they'll Protestant Reformation has just happened. - [Man] In 1517, Martin Luther posts the 95 theses on the
castle church in Wittenberg and unleashes the Protestant Reformation, which will fracture the power
of the Roman Catholic church in Western Europe. - [Woman] And something that
Protestants do not agree with, is the concept of a Relic
that we have a painting here that is showing a copy of a relic is important in this context. That is actually made
even more complicated by the artist Lucas Cranach the Elder is a very well-known artist
of the German Renaissance, but he was also the artist of
the Protestant reformation. - [Man] He was a friend
of Martin Luther's. He painted Martin Luther's
portrait yet here he is painting an extremely important saint. And one of the things that
Luther finds problematic are the idea of saints themselves. We're in this transitional
moment in this transitional place but for all that we haven't even gotten to the single most interesting
part in this painting which is the subject Saint Maurice is represented as a black African. - [Woman] Saint Maurice was
an early Christian saint. He lived in the third century and he was actually born in Egypt. He was part of a Roman
legion and he was murdered. He was killed along with some of his men when he refused to heal Christians. And so he's beheaded. - [Man] That takes place
in what is now Switzerland, a place that was then
part of the Roman Empire. - [Woman] And Saint Maurice
as we mentioned earlier, became the patron Saint
of the Holy Roman Empire in the 10th century and it's around that time that
his cult or his veneration really begins to increase. And then in the 13th century. You begin to see
transformations in the way that Saint Maurice is depicted. One of the earliest
representations we have of him as a black African comes
from this area as well. And it's a three-dimensional
sculpture of him. From about the 13th century until about midway or
the late 16th century. He's shown as a black African. - [Man] And here depicted
with great nobility. Wearing incredibly elaborate armor. In fact armor that was modeled on the armor of the Holy
Roman Emperor Charles V. It's a type of armor
that's known as field armor and here you can see that it's
been highlighted with gold and with an extraordinary array of jewels. - [Woman] We're able to date this armor to around 1500-1510, because
right at that moment, you have huge transformations
in the style of the armor that we see especially in the feet. Armor went from a pointed-toe
shoe to a flat-toed shoe. This armor that is modeled after Charles V armor is in Vogue at that time. - [Man] Look at the hat that he wears, it's fringed with these lovingly
painted ostrich feathers and he holds a banner on
which you can just make out the edge of the emblem
of the Holy Roman Emperor - [Woman] The Eagle,
and we even see symbols of what looked like the people keys on the bottom of the banner as well. We also see a symbol of the
Order of the Golden Fleece that's just above the necklace
and attached to his armor. - [Man] The Golden Fleece was
an extremely prestigious order that was associated with chivalry and that had been formed
in the 15th century. - [Woman] And so the church
that this reliquary was in, we presume that this altarpiece would have been there as well. The patron saint of that
church was also Saint Maurice in addition to a couple of other saints including Mary Magdalene. But we have a lot of ways
in which this painting is reminding us not only of the reliquary but also of the patron of this church also of the patron of
the Holy Roman Empire and the power of the Holy
Roman Empire in many ways which is referenced in the way that Saint Maurice is displayed here. Very regal, very confident, very stately. - [Man] I wanna pick up
on the issue of power for just a moment, because it's not just the power of the emperor
that's at stake here. The value of a relic was
in its spiritual power. And it's interesting to think about whether in the 16th century
when this was painted, whether or not a depiction of a relic, was imbued at least to some extent with the power of the original. - [Woman] Something that is
so important here as well is to remember that there
were many different people living in Renaissance Europe at the time. Here we have Saint Maurice
born in Thebes in Egypt, who is displayed as a black African and there were many people
from Africa or of African descent who were living in Europe. And so it would not have
been out of the ordinary or strange to see people of
color in the Renaissance. - [Man] And scholars have conjecture that people of color were commonly part of the courts of Europe. And so occupied privileged
positions in the political hierarchy of Europe. - [Woman] Unfortunately by
the leader 16th century, a process of whitewashing occurred in Saint Maurice is actually
then displayed as white. There is this dynamic that shifts in the context of the 16th century, where the issue of what we
call race does seem to matter and become important in
the later 16th Century. - [Man] And it's interesting
to think about that dynamic in relationship to
Europe's colonial expansion during this period, European
powers are asserting themselves in the Americas and increasingly
in Asia and in Africa. - [Woman] And I think it's
also important to keep in mind that when Saint Maurice is
being shown as a black African, it's at that same time where you also have one
of the Magi Balthazar being shown as a black African as well. (jazz music)