Banned Venus bounces back for Cranach exhibition

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - A 16th century painting deemed too racy by London Underground to advertise a groundbreaking exhibition by German Renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Elder has made it back in time for the show's opening on Saturday.

Venus, wearing a foxy smile and virtually nothing else, was banned on the grounds of taste. But the ban has now been lifted and a mistake admitted.

The decision was a relief for the Royal Academy of Arts which had chosen the deliberately seductive painting dating from 1532 to advertise the first major exhibition in Britain devoted exclusively to the works of the elder Cranach.

At a preview of the exhibition on Tuesday co-curator Bodo Brinkmann described Cranach as a phenomenon who came to epitomize the German Renaissance and who captured the spirit of the Reformation in the process.

"He was the archetypal artist of the German Reformation," he told reporters.

The compact exhibition that runs to June 8 starts with a selection of his earliest known works heavily influenced by Albrecht Durer but already bearing his own distinctive style.

A key offering in this section is the Martyrdom of St Catherine dated 1505 and full of bright colors, vivid action and deep perspective.

"This marks the transition from the vigorous style of a young painter to the more mature works of his later years with vibrant colors and composition," Brinkmann said.

It follows his career in the court of the Saxon electors, the establishment of his thriving studio in Wittenberg, his friendship with lead reformer Martin Luther and his developing treatment of styles and subjects to his death aged 81 in 1553.

One theme, epitomized by Venus and its twin Lucretia, is the duplicity Cranach sees in women.

It is a theme that runs through the later work.

The only trouble is that, as the exhibition makes clear, the prolific output and high quality of the Wittenberg studio makes it virtually impossible to pin individual works to Cranach.

"From 1530 onwards it is not necessarily possible to state with certainly that an individual work is by Cranach," Brinkmann said. "All we can say is it is of a certain quality."

In a 1526 painting of Adam and Eve next to the apple tree in the Garden of Eden, from the rather bemused expression on Adam's face it is very clear who is doing the tempting.

In contrast to the naked women in these and other works, The Golden Age in 1530 abounds in strategically placed leaves covering the entwined and cavorting couples.