Title-Border with the Story of Salome and St. John the Baptist
Original title: Title-Border with the Story of Salome and St. John the Baptist
kurzbeschreibung
This title border by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop is a woodcut. It combines, in three stacked strips, biblical scenes with the text of Psalm 23 as expounded by Martin Luther.
Description
The sheet's layout is governed by three horizontal bands. At the top, a company of diners gathers around a table set with a bowl and a cup. The middle band carries the text, set in Gothic type: 'Der XXIII Psalm / Auff ein abend vber Tisch / nach dem Gra-tias / ausgelegt / durch D. Mart. Luther'; to its left stands a woman holding a fruit, to its right a man with a long staff. The lower band is filled with a group of people in traditional dress conversing in an interior.
Context
Cranach worked in Wittenberg in the sixteenth century, and this sheet comes from his workshop. It served as the title border for a printed edition of Psalm 23 with Luther's exposition, which makes its closeness to the Reformation clear. No date is recorded, but the design belongs to the Renaissance. Today the sheet is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is in the public domain under CC0.
Impact
The three-part division and symmetrical arrangement give the sheet a calm, orderly feel. Precise contours and carefully executed figures create a dense narrative that invites close looking.
Technique
For the woodcut, the design was cut into a wooden block and then printed. The black contours and fine details reflect Renaissance printing practice; the palette is limited to black and white.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)