National Gallery acquires new Renaissance painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder

Visitors to the National Gallery are now able to view a new acquisition by one of the Renaissance’s most significant figures. Venus and Cupid (1529) by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553), one of the leading German painters of the early 16th century, is being displayed in Room 4 and is an important addition to the National Gallery’s impressive collection of paintings by an artist widely regarded as a master of the German Renaissance. The painting has been generously gifted to the National Gallery from the Drue Heinz Charitable Trust following the death last year of Mrs Heinz, a committed and renowned patron of the arts in the United States and Britain. The painting depicts two mythological figures and is one of a series that Cranach produced during the 1520s and 30s, including the National Gallery’s own Cupid complaining to Venus (about 1525). One of the characteristics that defines Cranach’s care