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Crowded out

Andrew Lambirth

Wednesday, 2nd April 2008

Cranach
Royal Academy, until 8 June

Friend of Martin Luther, and court painter to the Elector of Saxony (who was Luther’s protector), Lucas Cranach the Elder (c.1472–1553) has been called the leading artist of the Reformation. He produced many devotional images and religious scenes yet to us Cranach is known for other subjects — palely loitering nudes and strongly naturalistic portraits on fresh green backgrounds. Braving the queues at the Academy, I was pleasantly surprised to discover an exhibition filled with colour, mostly in the richly decorative religious works.

We haven’t seen much Cranach in this country, though our public collections have a few choice examples of his work. Last autumn there was a trailblazing exhibition at the Courtauld Institute that could actually claim to be the first monographic show devoted to his work in England. But that was a small (though exquisite) display, and did rather whet the appetite for more. The Academy’s show, organised jointly with the Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, where it was first shown, provides enough examples of Cranach’s work to please the most voracious student. It must be said that for sheer enjoyment, the Courtauld’s more focused exhibition won hands down. (I hope you all saw it.) The RA show is wider in range and has some really superb paintings in it, but as usual they’ve tried to squash too much in, and half of it gets overlooked.

I suppose I should be encouraging readers to visit this exhibition, yet the day I went there were so many people milling about (I imagine they thought they were looking at the exhibits, but they certainly didn’t appear to be concentrating very much) that the experience was not exactly a success. The constant surging of crowds precludes all but the briefest contemplation of a painting, and the most you can often do is glance at the pictures as you’re swept past. Of course, this is more than enough for some people who merely want to be able to say they’ve ‘seen’ the exhibition, and who don’t really bother about feeding their eyes and minds (not to mention their hearts and souls) through contact with original works of art. To these superficial browsers (with apparently nothing better to do) I should like to say: stay at home and read a review of the show.

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