.jpg?w=1)
Descriptif du lot
Few artists of the early 16th century can compete with Lucas Cranach in the originality and technical audacity of his woodcut compositions, of which the present Third Tournament is a prime example. To convincingly depict the turmoil of a tournament is difficult in any medium - to attempt it with a woodcut is very daring indeed. Yet Cranach succeeded, presumably with the aid of a virtuoso cutter working in his large and highly professional workshop. Although the whole scene is a wild tangle of fighters, horses, arms and armour, extravagantly plumed helmets and patterned saddle-cloths, every detail is clearly visible and distinct. Cranach uses the long, stark white lances to visually structure the chaos and to energize whole scene, reminiscent in this way of Paolo Uccello's Battle of San Romano. Printed less evenly and clearly, the print would be messy and flat, but in the present, outstanding example it is a thrilling image, full of clamour and excitement.
Despite his great success and reputation, and his considerable printed oeuvre, the actual print production of Cranach's workshop seems to have been relatively small at the time. Working at and for a princely court in a provincial town in Saxony, his clientele must have been quite limited and his means of distribution hindered by the considerable distance of his workshop to larger market places, while his contemporary Dürer in Nuremberg was not only working in one of the economic centres of the Holy Roman Empire but also connected to the major trade routes leading south towards Austria, Switzerland, France and ultimately Italy, and north towards Frankfurt, Cologne and the Netherlands. As a result, fine lifetime impressions of Cranach's prints, such as the present one, are very rare indeed.
Despite his great success and reputation, and his considerable printed oeuvre, the actual print production of Cranach's workshop seems to have been relatively small at the time. Working at and for a princely court in a provincial town in Saxony, his clientele must have been quite limited and his means of distribution hindered by the considerable distance of his workshop to larger market places, while his contemporary Dürer in Nuremberg was not only working in one of the economic centres of the Holy Roman Empire but also connected to the major trade routes leading south towards Austria, Switzerland, France and ultimately Italy, and north towards Frankfurt, Cologne and the Netherlands. As a result, fine lifetime impressions of Cranach's prints, such as the present one, are very rare indeed.