The Face of the Reformation

Who was Martin Luther?

Martin Luther (11/10/1483 – 2/18/1546) was a German monk who started the Protestant Reformation in 1517 when he denounced the Catholic Church’s corruption in his 95 Theses, posted on a Wittenberg church’s door. ^[1]Ozment, Steven. The Serpent and the Lamb: Cranach, Luther, and the Making of the Reformation’. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 120. Luther was decreed a heretic of the Church and made an outlaw of the Holy Roman Empire with the Diet of Worms in 1521.

In that same year he collaborated for the first time with Lucas Cranach the Elder, an artist also working in Wittenberg. Together, they made illustrations for Luther’s translation of the New Testament and published pamphlets against the Catholic Church. This made the Lutheran interpretation of the Bible accessible to popular audiences. ^[2]Ozment, Steven. The Serpent and the Lamb: Cranach, Luther, and the Making of the Reformation’. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 5, 15., Muhl, Arnold et al. Martin Luther: Treasures of … Continue reading Luther studied and kept his private life in the Augustinian convent in Wittenberg, now considered the “birthplace of the Lutheran Reformation.”. ^[3]Muhl, Arnold et al. Martin Luther: Treasures of the Reformation. First edition. (Dresden: Sandstein Verlag, 2016), 227. In 1534, he published the complete German Bible. ^[4]Ozment, Steven. The Serpent and the Lamb: Cranach, Luther, and the Making of the Reformation’. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 133.

Role of Luther’s Portraits

Martin Luther is one of the most frequently depicted figures in 16th century art. Art produced by Protestants during this period consisted of portraits of Reformation figures and critiques of the Catholic Church. ^[5]Roth, Michael. “Reformation and Polemics.” Essay. In Renaissance & Reformation: German Art in the Age of Dürer and Cranach. 91-121. Los Angeles, (CA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2016), … Continue reading People needed to see images of Luther in order to view him as a leader. These images portrayed him as “a pliable spiritual leader, one politicians could reason with and rely upon. Without such assurance, Luther’s reforms were unlikely to gain the elector’s support and take hold in Saxony.” ^[6]Ozment, Steven. The Serpent and the Lamb: Cranach, Luther, and the Making of the Reformation’. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 126. Images of Luther served as a symbol of all those exploited by the Church, and empowered them to join in the Reformation. ^[7]Schade, Werner. Cranach, a Family of Master Painters. Translated by Helen Sebba. (New York, New York: Putnam, 1980), 52.

The Evolution of Portraits of Luther

Portraits have the power to craft a particular persona of an individual. Portraits of Luther portrayed him as a capable leader through attributes such as clothing, headwear, and facial expression, as well as compositional aspects such as light and posing. The way in which Luther was represented in his portraits changed as the desired message to the viewer changed. Click here to view an interactive timeline of Luther’s life and portraiture.

In portraits prior to 1522, Luther is shown alone. From 1525-1528 he is shown primarily with his wife, the former nun Katharina von Bora, whom he had just married in 1525. This union and the large number of portraits produced in the years following were a statement of his opposition to the tradition of celibacy in the Catholic Church. ^[8]Schade, Werner. Cranach, a Family of Master Painters. Translated by Helen Sebba. (New York, New York: Putnam, 1980), 53.

After 1528, Luther is shown in a scholarly black robe, emphasizing his learning and erudition. He is often shown with Philipp Melanchthon, another important Wittenberg Reformer and one of Luther’s close friends. (below) ^[9]Schade, Werner. Cranach, a Family of Master Painters. Translated by Helen Sebba. (New York, New York: Putnam, 1980), 53. Luther has been depicted in a doctor’s beret to symbolize his authority as a well-educated university professor with the knowledge and credibility to interpret the Bible, in a monk’s cap to symbolize his devotion to God, and in other variations to emphasize Luther’s status as “a reformer for all seasons and social classes.”^[10]Muhl, Arnold et al. Martin Luther: Treasures of the Reformation. First edition. (Dresden: Sandstein Verlag, 2016), 239.

After 1528, there was a fundamental change in Luther’s representation which has been retained ever since. He occupies much more space in the portrait in the following years. Scholar Arnold Muhl writes that “Now, Luther presents a monumental figure, filling the frame with his bulky garb.”^[11]Muhl, Arnold et al. Martin Luther: Treasures of the Reformation. First edition. (Dresden: Sandstein Verlag, 2016), 239. See Martin Luther from the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen below for an example of this portrait type.

From 1528 until his death in 1546, Luther is most consistently portrayed with a withdrawn look, not making eye contact with the viewer, in a three-quarter view, and most often with a black coat that fills the frame in a triangular composition against a blue background. Luther became known for and recognized by the scholarly robe. ^[12]Muhl, Arnold et al. Martin Luther: Treasures of the Reformation. First edition. (Dresden: Sandstein Verlag, 2016), 239.

Beginning in 1532, he is almost always depicted with a book or Bible in his hands, a symbol of status, learning, and his accomplishments in publishing his interpretation of the Bible. The Bible was a meaningful symbol for the Protestant Reformation, as Luther preached that the Bible was the only source of truth, not the Catholic Church.

Portraits of Luther usually have a blue background, likely azurite blue, which was the most commonly used blue pigment in Cranach the Elder’s workshop. The mineral was widely available in German mines and was supplied to Cranach in large quantities. ^[13]Heydenreich, Gunnar. Lucas Cranach, the Elder: Painting Materials, Techniques and Workshop Practice. (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007), 154.

The Counter-Reformation

At the same time that these images of Luther and his ideas of reform were being disseminated to spread Protestantism, the Catholic Church was releasing counterpropaganda, slandering Luther for heresy. The Church’s aim was to portray him as a fraud and discredit him.

In 1529, Johann Cochlaeus, one of Luther’s most persistent Roman Catholic adversaries, published The Seven-Headed Luther, his book criticizing Luther. This woodcut by Hans Brosamer, located in Cochlaeus’s polemic, shows Luther as the 7-headed monster from the Apocalypse in Revelation 12: 1-6. Each of his heads shows different portrait types of him. The Church’s goal was to portray Luther as a contradictory, fanatical, and untrustworthy heretic. That the image uses many portrait types of Luther goes to show the power in variability of portraiture, and how the same subject can be shown in different guises.

From left to right, Luther is a doctor with a doctor’s cap, a monk, a Turk wearing a turban, Ecclesiastes, who Cochleus says “‘preaches what the mob wishes to hear,'” “Suermer” with a swarm of hornets over his head, “indicating a mentally ill or fanatical person,” “Visitator,” who Cochleus  “says revises old laws, thus accusing Luther of being a new Pope,” and finally as Barabbas, a well-known murderer from the Bible whom a crowd set free given the choice between him or Christ. ^[14]“Seven-Headed Luther: Pitts Digital Image Archive: Emory University.” Seven-Headed Luther. Emory University. https://www.pitts.emory.edu/dia/image_details.cfm?ID=461.^[15]Ozment, Steven. The Serpent and the Lamb: Cranach, Luther, and the Making of the Reformation’. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 130.

In any case, whether Protestant or Catholic propaganda, Martin Luther’s face was seen by both causes as an important symbol of religious beliefs.