The Heckscher Museum of Art’s collection spans 500 years with particular emphasis on art of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. American landscape painting and work by Long Island artists, past and present, are particular strengths, as is American and European modernism.
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Virgin, Child, St. John the Baptist and Angels
The Northern Renaissance master Lucas Cranach, whose name derives from a slightly altered spelling of Kronach, his native village in Germany, specialized in portraits and altarpieces. In 1505, he was appointed court painter to the House of Saxony and he became one of the most prominent citizens of Wittenberg. He was an intimate friend of Martin Luther, whose portrait he painted on several occasions. The Madonna and Child is a subject Cranach painted numerous times and several versions (Schlossmuseum Gotha, Stuttgart Staatsgalerie, and Detroit Institute of Arts) relate closely to the Heckscher painting in composition. The naturalism of the figures and their tender emotional connections are typical of Renaissance innovations in the representation of Christian subjects. In 1508, Duke Frederick the Wise conferred on Cranach a coat of arms with the winged serpent, which the artist used as his signature from then on.