Portret van Christian Pontanus

1549 · Laufbahn

the Wittenberg city council

He sits on the Wittenberg council in 1549 and again in 1552. Like his father, he holds an important place in the public life of the city; besides the workshop, he is a successful businessman and politician.

1550

Takes on full responsibility for the workshop

In 1550 Lucas Cranach the Elder leaves Wittenberg to join his patron, John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony, in exile. The Younger takes on full responsibility for the flourishing family workshop and successfully maintains its high output and quality of work, including images of Reformers such as Luther himself; he was never a court painter, but worked for princes and nobles.

1550

His first wife, Barbara Brück, dies

The artist's first wife, Barbara Brück, the mother of four of his children, dies. A year later he marries Magdalena Schurff.

24 May 1551

Marries Magdalena Schurff

He marries Magdalena Schurff, daughter of the Saxon physician Augustin Schurff and niece of the humanist, theologian and church reformer Philipp Melanchthon. Of the five children of this marriage, his son Augustin (1554–1595) will also become a painter, as well as a councillor, city judge and treasurer of Wittenberg.