45 LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER German,1472­1553 Portrait of a Man Oil on paper 26.2 x 19.9 cm (10 5/16 x 7 in.) Cat. Ill, no. 64; 92.GG.91 From 1504 until his death, Cranach served at the court of Saxony in Wittenberg, where he devoted much of his artistic effort to portraits. This unidentified sitter's portrait was made with brush and oil paint on paper, a technique uncommon in Northern European drawings of the early sixteenth century. Cranach rubbed the paper with oil to produce a brownish ground and then sketched in the outlines of the head. He worked up the face meticulously, going over various parts, such as the eyebrows, lashes, and outer facial contours, in pen and black ink. The contrast between the luminous face with its gleaming white highlights and the brown ground makes the sitter seem to move forward out of depth. The sense of living presence created by this effect is further enhanced by the young man's large and intelligent eyes. The intensity of expression plus the jewel­like refinement of its surfaces combine to make this one of Cranach's finest surviving portrait drawings. 58 GERMAN AND SWISS SCHOOLS