As a composer Cranach was not greatly gifted. His concept of the human shape was low; but he showed some freshness in the contour of incident, though he not unfrequently bordered on coarseness. His copper-plates and woodcuts are the best pieces of his art; and the earlier they are in date the more apparent is their power. Striking evidence of this is the "St Christopher" of 1506, or the plate of "Elector Frederick praying before the Madonna" (1509).