In the early 1500s, Lucas Cranach, the painter, became friends with Martin Luther. The pair also became collaborators. Andrew Pettegree, in both his 2015 book Brand Luther and a 2016 article for Apollo Magazine, provides a fascinating account of Cranach’s key contributions to the circulation of Luther’s ideas. After summarizing, based on Pettegree’s descriptions, how Cranach assisted in the creation of the Wittenberg title-page, I’d like to briefly draw attention to a powerful piece that Cranach designed for one of Luther’s pamphlets: Law and Grace.
As Luther worked to sustain and disseminate the Reformation, he published a flurry of pamphlets. However, while his works were being printed across Germany, the city of Wittenberg had only one available local printer at the time: Rhau-Grunenberg, who ran a small and inefficient shop. The low quality of Rhau-Grunenberg’s prints frustrated Luther. Even though he was able to enlist the help of another printer named Melchior Lotter, whose experience and distinct Leipzig style elevated the look of the Wittenberg texts, Luther—and Wittenberg—still needed a brand. After all, Luther was living in Wittenberg; it was the locus from which he was spreading his influence through Germany. Then Lucas Cranach got involved.
Using his business acumen and artistic skills, Cranach eventually created a unique title-page that Luther could use for his pamphlets. A typical title-page would consist of one woodcut. In the center he placed a rectangle of space for the text, and then surrounded it with illustrations. This gave the artist the room required for elaborate, detailed artwork which could flow both horizontally and vertically around the text in the middle. The printers using Cranach’s design, meanwhile, ensured that Luther’s name and the name of Wittenberg both received prominent places in the center panel. Together, these design elements formed a particular Wittenberg style.
In 1528, Cranach produced the illustrations of Law and Grace for such a title-page (seen below). A tree divides the entire design into two halves surrounding the center panel. Scenes of death, sin and judgment on the left mirror scenes of the victorious Gospel on the right. For instance, the Fall is placed opposite the crucifixion of Jesus. Even in the background of the bottom scene, we find yet another set of two corresponding images: the serpent raised in the wilderness for the healing of the Israelites, and an angel giving the Gospel to shepherds. To further emphasize the contrast between the scenes on the left and the scenes on the right, Cranach uses other visual motifs too. Adam and Eve are surrounded by flourishing greenery while Christ hangs on a dead tree. The central tree itself is lifeless on the left side and alive on the right side. Overall, Cranach achieves a careful and symmetrical juxtaposition. Because these scenes are literally set parallel to each other, the audience is clearly directed to think about their similarities and contrasts—how a world of Grace turns that of Law upside down.
There are also several depictions of Jesus. He descends, for instance, from the upper left corner, with a sword of judgment almost seeming to project from His head. His feet are hidden, but His hands are visible and clearly pierced. He carries a flag with a cross on it. In the middle right, there is another depiction of Christ. He cannot carry a flag, for His hands are nailed to the cross. Cranach solves this problem by adding a little lamb who carries the flag of the cross in the crook of its foreleg. The lamb also serves the task of describing, in visual language, the significance of the cross in the Law and Grace context: Jesus Christ, the ultimate sacrificial lamb, bearing His people’s sins and enduring the wrath of God in their stead.
But the figure beneath the lamb is Christ also, for His hands and feet are clearly pierced. This is the death of Christ—the same event as depicted in the scene with the cross—in another light. In Christ’s death, He triumphantly crushes the law, the devil, and death itself. Beneath Christ’s right foot the skull of Death breaks away from the rest of its skeleton. Christ Jesus plants His left foot, meanwhile, squarely on the open-mouthed devil, and the Ten Commandments are upside-down—the Law has been turned on its head.
Taking a step back, we can see that two main depictions of Jesus appear in opposite corners of the frame: Jesus the King and Judge, and Jesus acting in victorious grace. The former descends from heaven, while the latter is on ground level, defeating His enemies. The latter depiction is the biggest element in the frame. It draws the most attention. There Jesus is a giant figure, towering over everyone in the rest of the bottom block of scenes. But this Jesus is not contradictory or antithetical to the Jesus in the opposite corner; they both carry the flag of the cross and both carry the wounds of the cross. Cranach has made multiple images of Jesus, striving to visually nuance the message of Christ’s role in our salvation.
To a late medieval audience highly accustomed to interpreting visual (and religious) images, Cranach’s work was probably powerfully communicative. Even though it is richly informed by a particularly Protestant view of Scripture, the elements of the piece still communicate clearly to anyone who has some familiarity with the Bible. The apostle in the front looks back over his shoulder at the world under Law, catching the gaze of the sinner being ushered into hell. With his right hand he points upward to the sacrificial atonement taking place at the cross. With his left hand he gestures to the grand victory of Jesus over death and the devil, and the broken power of the law. Behind him, like a visual echo, the angel with the scroll announces the same message to the tiny shepherds below: Look what Christ has done!
Image citation: Lucas Cranach (der Ältere) (16.10.1553), Stecher. Titelbordüre Mit Biblischen Szenen. Holzschnitt. Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, JSTOR, https://jstor.org/stable/community.15736448. Accessed 17 Nov. 2024.
