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Cranach and LutherPainter and theologianThe Royal Academy’s current exhibition of the work of the German painter Lucas Cranach is a rare opportunity to study the career of an artist who became one of the best known propagandists for the Protestant Reformation Very few details survive of Cranach’s early life. A near contemporary of Holbein, he was born in 1472 in Kronach, southern Germany Ð the town from which he took his name. It is known that by his late 20s he was working in Vienna, where he received commissions from distinguished scholars and humanists, whose recommendations would have advanced his career. Court painterFrom 1505, Cranach was appointed as Court Painter to the Elector of Saxony, Frederick the Wise, and his brother, known as John the Steadfast. Cranach was to remain in this post for the rest of his life, building up a highly efficient workshop practice, assisted by his sons Hans (who died in 1537) and Lucas the Younger. The court was based in Wittenberg, where the Elector had in 1502 founded a successful university. Luther arrived there in 1511, where he was appointed professor of Biblical Excegesis. Luther and Cranach (who was 11 years his senior) probably met at about this time, and the two were to become lifelong friends. Cranach also carried out illustrations for writings by Philip Melanchthon, who had been appointed professor of Greek. Luther’s portraitCranach’s portraits of Luther quickly became some of the key images of the Reformation. By 1520, Luther was seen as a national hero and students were flocking to Wittenberg. Copies of his portrait were in great demand. Cranach’s earliest engraving of Luther shows him still in his monk’s cowl, with a shaven tonsure. Following his excommunication from the church of Rome in 1521 and condemnation for heresy, Luther was protected by Frederick the Wise at Wartburg Castle, overlooking Eisenach, where he remained in disguise, under an assumed name, for ten months while working on his German translation of the New Testament. A more unusual portrait by Cranach shows him during this time, virtually unrecognisable with head of curly hair, beard and moustache. It is possible that this was painted, and copies made, to reassure his followers that Luther was still alive. New TestamentIt was Cranach who was responsible for the printing of Luther’s German New Testament. An astute businessman, he ventured into publishing specifically for this project. The first edition of 3,000 copies had sold out within a few weeks. The exhibition includes a copy from the second edition, with woodcut illustrations to the Book of Revelation by Cranach’s workshop. Cranach evidently knew Luther’s whole family, as the exhibition includes a double portrait of his parents — where we can see how closely Luther resembled his father. The catalogue also has reproductions of others which, sadly, were only shown when the exhibition opened in Frankfurt earlier in the year. Among these is the double portrait of Luther and his wife, the former nun Katherina von Bora. A traditional marriage portrait of this kind would have been seen as a declaration of Luther’s rejection both of the Roman Catholic church and the monastic life. Cranach is recorded as a witness at Luther’s wedding in 1525 — a brave act in such turbulent times — and also stood as godfather to two of his six children. Faithful to the endFollowing the deaths of Frederick the Wise in 1525 and his brother John in 1532, Cranach remained in a favoured position at the court of their successor John Frederick, as a highly respected and wealthy citizen of Wittenburg. However, this prosperous life was soon to change. Following Luther’s death in 1546, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was determined to crush the Reformation in Germany by the use of force. In April 1547, aided by an army of Spanish mercenaries, he defeated the league of Protestant princes at the Battle of Muhlberg. The Elector John Frederick was captured, and Wittenberg soon occupied by troops. In 1550, the faithful Cranach, by then in his mid-70s, travelled to join his patron in captivity at Augsberg and accompanied him home to Weimar in 1552, where Cranach died the following year. The portrait by Lucas the Younger of his father from about this time may have been a memorial — in case he failed to return. Always practical in business, the exhibition shows that Cranach undertook commissions of all kinds, for both Catholic and Protestant clients. However, from his close friendship with Luther, we have a unique legacy — our most valuable visual records of the great Reformer’s life. Anne Roberts,
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