Hunting near Hartenfels Castle
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.
Colors in this work
Details
- Date
- 1540
- Dimensions
- framed: height 1.33 m, width 1.855 m, depth 0.073 m; unframed: height 1.168 m, width 1.702 m
- Origin
- Germany
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Holding institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Palette
-
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- Image provider
- cleveland-museum-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- John L. Severance Fund
Art Genome Taxonomy
11 tags
Subject Matter
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Animals Visual · 99%
Numerous hunting dogs and multiple stags are distributed throughout the scene, including animals crossing the river and moving through the wooded terrain.
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Equestrian Visual · 98%
Mounted hunters and horses appear in several areas of the composition.
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Landscapes and Waterscapes Visual · 99%
The work depicts a broad wooded landscape with a prominent river, meadows, distant hills, and open sky.
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Royalty and Aristocracy Both · 94%
The canonical description identifies Protestant rulers of Saxony and their courtiers; the image shows richly dressed, mounted, and armed participants in an organized hunting event.
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Movement Visual · 98%
Running dogs, fleeing stags, mounted riders, river crossings, and diagonally advancing groups create sustained visual activity and pursuit.
Styles and Movements
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Northern Renaissance Interpretive · 84%
The canonical record does not provide a style classification, but the German attribution, 1540 date, courtly subject, meticulous detail, and observed landscape-and-figure treatment are consistent with Northern Renaissance painting.
Visual Qualities
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Dense Composition Visual · 98%
Many figures, animals, trees, weapons, costumes, and landscape details are tightly distributed across foreground, middle ground, and distance.
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Highly Detailed Visual · 96%
The painting renders numerous small-scale details in costumes, tack, weapons, animals, vegetation, architecture, and the river surface.
Medium and Techniques
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Oil Painting Metadata · 99%
The work is cataloged as oil, originally on wood and transferred to masonite.
Time Periods
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16th Century Art Metadata · 99%
The catalog dates the work to 1540, placing it in the sixteenth century.
Geographic Regions
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German Art Metadata · 99%
The catalog identifies Lucas Cranach as German and gives Germany as the place of origin.
Source & rights
Lucas Cranach (German, 1472–1553). Hunting near Hartenfels Castle. Cleveland Museum of Art.
High-resolution sources
- Original TIFF ↗ 5,000 × 3,430 · Cleveland Museum Of Art · Available