Lucas Cranach the Elder was a famous artist and engraver of the German Renaissance who painted the landscape Hunting Near Hartenfels Castle in 1540.
This very busy picture is filled with figures and action, as deer are chased into the river by hounds and mounted hunters to be shot in a broad landscape. Depicted in the painting is John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony (1503-1554) who can be seen stringing a bow, bottom center in green, as well as Sibylle of Cleves (1512-1554), electress consort of Saxony, center-right in black and yellow, pointing a bow at deer. Lucas Cranach the Elder painted many pictures of Sibylle of Cleves during his lifetime.
Behind is the stable influence and newly completed Hartenfels Castle in Torgau where a league of Lutherans met to denounce the excesses of the Catholic Church. In view of this, the leisure of the foreground is both sanctioned and tempered by the authority of the Elector of Saxony and his new religious cause.
Lucas Cranach the Elder’s Hunting Near Hartenfels Castle is in the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio, United States.