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Lot Essay
Cranach's relations with Luther are well documented: as court painter in Wittenberg, Cranach found himself at the very centre of the Protestant Reformation, his patrons, the Saxon Electors, being the protectors of Martin Luther and champions of his cause. Cranach and Luther were close personal friends and godfathers to each other's children and the artist became the de facto official portraitist of Luther. Two engravings (both 1520; Hollstein, nos 6-7), dated three years after Luther posted the ninety-five theses at the castle church, show the Reformer as an Augustinian. The year Luther was excommunicated and took his stand at the Diet of Worms, Cranach portrayed him in another engraving, this time in profile, wearing the distinctive cap of the learned doctor of theology (1521; Hollstein, no. 8), and he recorded Luther's likeness in disguise as Junker Jörg while sequestered for his own safety at the Wartburg in a woodcut of 1522 (Hollstein, no. 132). Different versions of painted portraits by Cranach show Luther variously as a monk, as Junker Jörg, in pendant with Katharina von Bora and in pendant with Philip Melanchthon. He also painted companion portraits of Luther's parents, Hans Luther (1527) and Margaretha Luther (c. 1527; both Wartburg, Eisenach).
The inscription on the present painting reads, in loose translation: 'The Grace of Christ, that was formerly hidden in the dark, has been revealed again through Martin Luther. Perhaps this is truly as, in ages past, Elijah with all his soul drove the fight for the true faith.' Elijah was the Old Testament prophet who fought against the cult of Baal led by Queen Jezebel, wife of King Ahab of Israel (1 Kings, XVII; v. 1-2 Kings, II; v. 13). The comparison of Luther's struggle for the Reformation with Elijah's against the worshippers of Baal was one that quickly became prevalent amongst his followers, and falls into one of the three main iconographic traditions of the reformer that emerged before 1620: Luther as an apocalyptic prophet, as invoked here; as a hero of the German people; and as a faithful teacher of the Word of God.
As early as 1520, many Germans had placed their eschatological longings in Luther, Protestant contemporaries describing him as God's chosen instrument, a new Daniel, and especially a new Elijah, some identifying him as the "angel" of Revelation 14, sent by God to proclaim the gospel to the nations before the Last Judgment, that had often been interpreted as the return of the ascended prophet. The Wittenberg reformer perpetuated aspects of this prophetic persona, calling himself a prophet and apostle to the Germans, an "Isaiah" or a "Jeremiah" who, like the prophets of old, correctly proclaimed the Word of God. Luther's death in 1546 did not silence speculation about his unique role: after witnessing his decease, Michael Coelius concluded that Luther 'was truly for our time a true Elijah and Jeremiah, a John the forerunner before the day of the Lord, or an apostle.'
The inscription on the present painting reads, in loose translation: 'The Grace of Christ, that was formerly hidden in the dark, has been revealed again through Martin Luther. Perhaps this is truly as, in ages past, Elijah with all his soul drove the fight for the true faith.' Elijah was the Old Testament prophet who fought against the cult of Baal led by Queen Jezebel, wife of King Ahab of Israel (1 Kings, XVII; v. 1-2 Kings, II; v. 13). The comparison of Luther's struggle for the Reformation with Elijah's against the worshippers of Baal was one that quickly became prevalent amongst his followers, and falls into one of the three main iconographic traditions of the reformer that emerged before 1620: Luther as an apocalyptic prophet, as invoked here; as a hero of the German people; and as a faithful teacher of the Word of God.
As early as 1520, many Germans had placed their eschatological longings in Luther, Protestant contemporaries describing him as God's chosen instrument, a new Daniel, and especially a new Elijah, some identifying him as the "angel" of Revelation 14, sent by God to proclaim the gospel to the nations before the Last Judgment, that had often been interpreted as the return of the ascended prophet. The Wittenberg reformer perpetuated aspects of this prophetic persona, calling himself a prophet and apostle to the Germans, an "Isaiah" or a "Jeremiah" who, like the prophets of old, correctly proclaimed the Word of God. Luther's death in 1546 did not silence speculation about his unique role: after witnessing his decease, Michael Coelius concluded that Luther 'was truly for our time a true Elijah and Jeremiah, a John the forerunner before the day of the Lord, or an apostle.'