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The Crucifixion by Cranach, the Elder The Crucifixion by Cranach the Elder is a fine example of symbolical painting, where even seemingly irrelevant details represent a certain semantic meaning. It is being criticized for failing to include the spirit of Renaissance, like the paintings of Cranach's Italian contemporaries, who were promoting the ideas of intellect and physical beauty, while exploiting Christian fable. But, although the artistic value of Cranach's work falls short behind the Renaissance paintings, it nevertheless derives from the same metaphysical root of European art, as whole idealism. If we look closer at the painting, it will become clear to us that it is thematically divided, according to the author's understanding of Blessing and Damnation. The people to the right from Jesus' cross, clearly express sorrow, while looking at the son of man. Some characters appear to be frightened, which also corresponds to the Christian idea that the fear of God is a virtue.
Mary Magdalena is being supported by the group of other women, as she faints. The facial features of the Blessed are rounded and can be generally described as childlike another referral to Jesus' promise that children will inherit the heaven. The people to the left from Jesus, can unmistakably be thought of as the damned. A few characters at the front appear to be engaging in their own affairs, while Jesus suffers on the cross. Some of them try to pull his robes apart, with the expression of greed on their faces. Some characters, at the back, are having a casual conversation.
The thief on the cross, to the left from Jesus, has a hideous beer belly, he is looking down, in the ultimate gesture of non-believing. According to the Christian doctrine, the despair is one of the seven deadly sins, therefore, there can be no doubt about what Cranach wanted to say. The excessive attention to details is the common feature of German medieval paintings. There is an undeniable connection between highly detailed scenes of sinners' tortures in Bosch's paintings and between Cranach' depiction of spiritually deprived individuals, who are trying to find the earthly happiness, by the mean of acquiring material goods. But is does not skip one's attention that there is nothing in the painting that would correspond to the Catholic concept of purgatory. It seems like an invisible line has been drawn between the Damned and the Blessed and there is nothing in the middle.
This is quite interesting, given the fact that Cranach produced his painting for the Catholic church, there are clearly the signs of Protestantism can be found. For example, the mounted soldier, on the right, looks at Jesus with awe, which corresponds to the Protestant idea that heaven is open to everyone, for as long as one accepts Jesus as his personal saviour. In our days, this kind of idea sounds almost banal, yet, in late 16 th century it sounded very revolutionary. We can only guess how come this painting was being approved by the Inquisition, which was a customary practice at the time. There are clearly signs of author engaging in heresy. For example, the people are dressed in the way, which was customary for the era.
There is no even a hint of Roman togas. Also we cannot find anything, which would remind us a Jewish traditional dress another indication of author being ignorant of the original roots of Christianity. Nevertheless, I found a certain idea in Cranach' Crucifixion, which was being overlooked by the contemporary critics. That is the idea of Blessed and Damned corresponds to the recent discoveries in genetics, in 20 th century. The Protestantism does not leave person an escape route, even though it declares that people are entitled with the freedom to choose between good and evil, once the choice is made it is final. But it is also the basic concept of eugenics.
People are being programed to act in a certain manner, no matter how hard they might try to change their behaviour. Once their facial features are rough and unpleasant, like in Cranach' Crucifixion, they have no choice but to act evil. In the way, we can think of Cranach as the predecessor of Tolkien. The bipolar dualism was a very common feature of works of art in Medieval times. Back in the Dark ages it was believed that everything has to do with everything, therefore even the human dreams were being thought of as just another form of reality. It is not by the simple accident that the Blessed are depicted as blond and fair skinned.
This is why the medieval symbolism cannot be referred to as political correct, in the contemporary sense of this world. But unlike symbolism of 20 th century, it is not separated from the essence of the symbolized subjects or events. Also, it seems that Cranach intentionally made a sharp difference between the color of the sky, immediately above peoples' heads and the dark overtones of the sky, behind the crosses. There is absolutely nothing to be found, which would even lightly remind us a sunset or the rapid change of atmospheric pressure. In my opinion, this is another Cranach' attempt the emphasise the unchanging nature of human choices, directed by the free will. Once one chooses in favor of Damnation, there can be no chance for him to redeem itself another Protestant dogma, which Cranach was able to implement in his painting.
But of course, there can also be found many other interpretations of his work. We can never be sure about what was the author's original message to the public. In the way, it is like solving a crossword or putting together a puzzle. We can only discuss a general artistic trends, in analysed painting. But it is quite impossible to define the pure message, like some critics are trying to do. We cannot say that Cranach' painting is the embodiment of Medieval dualism, because author had never even heard of such term.
For him, it was nothing but a mean to convey his primitive beliefs about the nature of good and evil. Like everybody else, he needed to associate these categories with the physical subjects. And he could not come up with nothing better then the image of Jesus, nailed to the cross. But, while doing this, Cranach was able to convey to us another message, which he never planned Damnation and Blessing are absolute categories and there can be no intermediate forms...
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