Although this period was brief, less than two years in fact, his close association with a circle of humanist writers, particularly Johannes Cuspinian, proved to be formative. It is here that he assumes the name Lucas Cranach after his birth place, and begins to employ the initials 'LC'. Insufficient documentation has led to much speculation about his Wanderjahre - years of travel - and real evidence with regard to his artistic identity does not emerge until 1502 in Vienna. It is known that he was apprenticed to his father Hans, in Kronach, where he learned the crafts of the ars graphica and presumably the art of painting. His early artistic training remains equally obscure. A portrait from 1550 (now in the Uffizi, Florence) bearing an authentic inscription that claims the sitter to be Cranach the Elder aged 77, provides evidence which corresponds with the accounts of the artist's cousin and first biographer, Matthias Gunderam in 1556. His exact birth date is unknown, but it was probably in the year 1472. Little can be stated with any certainty about his early life except that he was born in the town of Kronach in Northern Franconia as one of four children to the painter Hans Maler and that his mother's maiden name was Hübner.

Lucas Cranach the Elder embodies the ideals of Renaissance man active not only as a painter and printmaker, but also as an entrepreneur and politician.

Famous reformation portrait painter