In the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland — check current display status with the museum.
FROM THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART’S CATALOG
Painted in minute detail, Cranach’s majestic scene includes elements characteristic of landscapes in 16th-century German art: verdant forest, hilltop city, and distant mountains. A close associate of Protestant reformer Martin Luther, Cranach adapted Christian imagery to reflect Luther’s belief that religious art must narrate scripture. The Gospels describe Christ’s baptism with the heavens opening, a dove descending, and a voice saying, “Here is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased,” which Cranach painted in Latin directly onto the clouds.
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Ambrosius Holbein — Christ as a mediator
The baptism of Christ
Joachim Patinir — The Penitence of Saint Jerome
Lucas van Leyden — The Baptism of Christ in the River Jordan
Rivierlandschap met de heilige Christoffel
Bernard van Orley — Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Lucas Cranach the Elder — A Faun and His Family with a Slain
Master of the Saint Bartholomew Altar — The Baptism of Chris
Lucas Cranach the Elder — The Judgment of Paris
Bartholomeus Spranger — Venus and Adonis
French (Fontainebleau) Painter — The Nymph of Fontainebleau
Hans Baldung (called Hans Baldung Grien) — Saint John on Pat
