The following was written and submitted by Jean Ershler Schatz, artist and researcher from Laguna Woods, California:

Lucas Cranach, the Elder, was born circa 1472 in the small town of Kronach in South Germany. He took his name from his hometown but very little is known of his life before about 1500-1501, when he settled in Vienna and started working in the humanist circles associated with the newly founded university. He seems to have spent his first years of training in his father's workshop. His stay in Vienna was brief (he left in 1504), but in this period he painted some of his finest and more original works. They include portraits, and several religious works in which he shows a remarkable feeling for the...