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Martin Luther (1483-1546), one of the greatest leaders of the Reformation and of Protestantism, was a priest and professor at the University of Wittenberg where Cranach was court painter to the Elector of Saxony. The two men were close friends and each was a godparent to one of the other’s children. This portrait is dated 1525, the year of Luther’s marriage. Cranach has signed it with a black winged and crowned serpent bearing a ring, a part of his coat-of-arms. Cranach’s style developed little in his working life of over fifty years, during which he outlived his great contemporaries Holbein, Altdorfer, Dürer and Grunewald. He was a master of rhythmic line which is here employed in the strong silhouette and gives such firm authority to the head of the brave reformer.
| Bequest of F.P.M. Schiller, 1946. | museum no. K1650 |