The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of February 15, 2025

Hunting near Hartenfels Castle
1540
(German, 1472–1553)
Framed: 133 x 185.5 x 7.3 cm (52 3/8 x 73 1/16 x 2 7/8 in.); Unframed: 116.8 x 170.2 cm (46 x 67 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1958.425
Location: 114 Late Northern Renaissance
Did You Know?
Humans, dogs, and deer make up most of the creatures in this busy scene—but not all of them! Look closely at the background to spot a bear and three boars.Description
The Protestant rulers of Saxony commissioned this animated hunt scene, set near their residence seen in the background, Hartenfels Castle (in eastern Germany). John Frederick the Magnanimous, in the bottom left corner, wears dark green hunting attire; he spans his crossbow and waits for his courtiers and dogs to chase a stag across the river. His wife, the Electress Sibylle, stands at right, poised to take the first ceremonial shot. The prince electors of Saxony were passionate practitioners of hunting with dogs—elaborate, highly rehearsed occasions, coordinated by the use of signals from hunting horns. Cranach dated this work and his signature is the winged snake at lower right. 1577 in the right corner is an inventory number.- 1540-1950sRoyal Collection of Saxony, Schloss Hartenfels and Schloss Moritzburg, consigned to M.H. DreyUntil 1958(M.H. Drey, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)1958-The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OhioProvenance Footnotes1 On October 4, 1543, Cranach was paid 123 florins, 10 groschen, and 8 pfennig for various works (Staatsarchiv, Weimar Reg. Bb. 4551, Bl. 24b (Schuchardt [1851] 162ff.), including a hunting picture presented to Duke Maurice of Saxony [1521-1553], presumably the Cleveland painting. Cranach had been appointed court painter to the Electors of Saxony in 1505 by Frederick the Wise. A House of Saxony inventory number (1577) is inscribed in the lower right corner of the painting. The painting remained at Schloss Hartenfels, Torgau for generations, and with the Dukes of Saxony at Schloss Moritzburg until the 1950s.
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Reproduced: no. 331a, p. 91Lilienfein, Heinrich. Lukas Cranach und seine Zeit. Bielefeld, Germany: Velhagen & Klasing, 1944. Reproduced: p. 86Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Vinzenz Oberhammer, Friderike Klauner, and Günther Heinz. Katalog der Gemäldegalerie. Wien, Austria: Kunsthistorisches Museum, 1958. Reproduced: p. 39, no. 117Francis, Henry S. "The Stag Hunt by Lucas Cranach the Elder and Lucas Cranach the Younger." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art XLVI, no. 10 (November, 1959):198-205. Reproduced: p. 198-199, fig. 1The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 108 archive.orgThe Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 108 archive.orgSchütz, Karl. Lucas Cranach der Ältere und seine Werkstatt. Jubiläumsausstellung museumseigener Werke, 1472-1972. Wien, Austria: Kunsthist. 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März 2006 in den Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz ; eine Ausstellung in Kooperation mit der Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden]. Köln, Germany: Wienand, 2005. Reproduced: p. 160, fig. 72Ferino Pagden, Sylvia, and Andreas Beyer. Tizian versus Seisenegger: die Portraits Karls V. mit Hund : ein Holbeinstreit. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2005. Mentioned: p. 169; Reproduced: p. 171, fig. 4aKlein, Holger A. Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007. Reproduced: cat. 112, Mentioned: p. 294, 295Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms & Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007. Reproduced: p. 155Treasures of the Cleveland Museum of Art. London: United Kingdom: Scala Books, 2012. Reproduced: p. 168-169Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 179Greub, Suzanne. Von Meisterhand: die Cranach-Sammlung des Musée des beaux-arts de Reims. Munich, Germany: Hirmer, 2015. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 54-55, Abb. 6Gengler, Matthew. "You Ask, We Answer." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 58, no. 5 (September/October 2018): 22. Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 22.Cranach, Lucas, Lucas Cranach, and Michael Hofbauer. Corpus Cranach: Lucas Cranach I und Lucas Cranach II : Verzeichnis der Gemälde unter Berücksichtigung von Werkstattumfeld und Epigonen. Heidelberg, 2022. Reproduced: p. 481, CC-SJM-100-006Nelson, Jennifer. Lucas Cranach: From German Myth to Reformation. London: Reaktion Books, 2024. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 67-69, fig. 23
- Luther and the Princes. Schloss Hartenfels, Torgau, Germany (May 15-November 1, 2015).Lucas Cranach. L'altro rinascimento. Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy (organizer) (October 13, 2010-March 3, 2011).Arms and Armor from Imperial Austria. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-June 1, 2008).Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. National Museum of Bavaria, Munich, Germany (May 10-September 16, 2007); J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (October 30, 2007-January 20, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 13-June 7, 2009).Faith and Power: Saxony in the Europe of the Reformation Era. Hartenfels Castle, Torgau, Dresden, Germany (May 24-October 10, 2004).Lucas Cranach: Ein Maler-Unternehmer aus Franken. Museum of Fine Arts, Leipzig (May 17-July 1, 1994); Fortress of Rosenberg Kronach (September 7-November 6, 1994).Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).A Cleveland Bestiary. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 15-December 16, 1981).Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 11-October 10, 1965).Lucas Cranach d. A und Lucas Cranach d. J. Staatliche Museen (duetsches Museum) Berlin, Germany (1937).
- {{cite web|title=Hunting near Hartenfels Castle|url=false|author=Lucas Cranach|year=1540|access-date=15 February 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1958.425