1509
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
The Tournament with lances is a 1509 by Lucas Cranach the Elder, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a crowded jousting field—knights in armor, lances raised, horses rearing. Dust kicks up as teams clash in a messy, chaotic battle. This isn’t a polished royal event. Cranach shows the rough, real side of tournaments: fighters tangled, some falling, others charging. He turned his sketches into woodcuts, carving lines into blocks to print these scenes over and over. If you like this, look up *sfumato*—a technique that softens edges, the opposite of Cranach’s sharp, bold lines.
Group engagements fought between two teams of contestants gained favor during the 1500s. These mêlées were often confused and chaotic, as shown in this woodcut. Lucas Cranach the Elder sketched many tournament scenes, often transferring them in faithful detail to woodblocks.
While the tilt was the most popular type of jousting in the 1500s, the mêlée remained in favor and often formed the climax of the greatest tournaments.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Lucas Cranach the Elder was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving.
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