The wood engravings that contain Cranach’s mark are not so numerous as those which contain the mark of Albert Durer, and they are also generally inferior to the latter both in effect and design. The following reduced copy of a cut which contains three of Cranach’s four marks will afford some idea of the style of his designs on wood. As a specimen of his ability in this branch of art it is perhaps superior to the greater part of his designs executed in the same manner. The subject is described by Bartsch as a Repose in Egypt. The action of the youthful angels who are dancing round the Virgin and the infant Christ is certainly truly juvenile if not graceful. The two children seen up the tree robbing an eagle’s nest are perhaps emblematic of the promised peace of Christ’s kingdom and of the destruction of the power of Satan: “No lion shall be there nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there.”[V-58] In the right-hand corner at the top is the shield of the arms of Saxony; and to the left, also at the top, is another of Cranach’s marks--a shield with two swords crossed; in the right-hand corner at the bottom is a third mark,--the figure of a kind of dragon with a ring in its mouth. The size of the original cut is thirteen inches and one-fourth high by nine inches and one-fourth wide. [Footnote V-58: Isaiah, chapter xxxv. verse 9.] [Illustration] Cranach was much esteemed in his own country as a painter, and several of his pictures are still regarded with admiration. He was in great favour with John Frederick, Elector of Saxony,[V-59] and at one period of his life was one of the magistrates of Wittenberg. He died at Weimar, on 16th October 1553, aged eighty-three. [Footnote V-59: One of the largest wood-cuts designed by Cranach is a subject representing the baptism of some saint; and having on one side a portrait of Frederick, Elector of Saxony, and on the other a portrait of Luther. The block has consisted of three pieces, and from the impressions it seems as if the parts containing the portraits of the elector and Luther had been added after the central part had been finished. The piece altogether is comparatively worthless in design, and is very indifferently engraved.]