Description of the picture:
Madonna and Child under the apple tree – Lucas Cranach the Elder. 1520-1530. Oil on canvas, translated from wood. 87×59
Cranach portrayed the red-haired Madonna in the image of a beautiful young woman resembling a princess from German fairy tales. It is located in an apple orchard amid a landscape with a view of Saxony’s castle and mountains. The clothes of the Madonna correspond to the clothes of German aristocrats. The color scheme of the picture is diverse and saturated with noble red, yellow, golden, green and their shades. Madonna and Child Jesus, with delicately accentuated proportions of the baby calf, they carefully look at the viewer, as if making it clear that they know everything that fate has prepared for them and they are ready to accept it. The gaze of the elongated eyes of the Mother of God is sad and thoughtful – she knows that she must lose her son. A direct hint of this is the apple and bread in the hands of the Infant, symbols of the atonement of sin."
