Portrait of Martin Luther

Portrait of Martin Luther

Title

Portrait of Martin Luther

[Cat. Kassel 1997, 82]

Painting on beech wood

Medium

Painting on beech wood

[Cat. Kassel 1997, 82]

The reformer also wears a gown. His beret extents further out at the sides, the outline of his shoulder is steeper and more sweeping on the left, while his chin is framed on the right by a high collar. There is a succinctly implied book between his hands on the

The reformer also wears a gown. His beret extents further out at the sides, the outline of his shoulder is steeper and more sweeping on the left, while his chin is framed on the right by a high collar. There is a succinctly implied book between his hands on the right. Judging by the size it is probably not a Bible, which would have indicated the importance of the Holy Scripture within the Lutheran Faith.

[Cat. Kassel 1997, 85]

Attribution
Workshop Lucas Cranach the Elder

Attribution

Workshop Lucas Cranach the Elder

[Exhib. Cat. Gotha 2015, No. 35] [Cat. Kassel 1997, 82]

Production date
1543

Production date

1543

[pendant dated]

Dimensions
Dimensions of support: 20.6/20.8 (left/right) x 15.1/15.2 (top/bottom) x 0.7 cm (slightly trimmed along the left edge)

Dimensions

  • Dimensions of support: 20.6/20.8 (left/right) x 15.1/15.2 (top/bottom) x 0.7 cm (slightly trimmed along the left edge)

  • [Cat. Kassel 1997, 82]

Signature / Dating

Pendant with artist's insignia: winged serpent and date '1543'

Signature / Dating

  • Pendant with artist's insignia: winged serpent and date '1543'

  • [cda 2013]

Inscriptions and Labels

Reverse of the panel: - top centre:
two labels with the numbers 'N36' and '231' in brown ink

  • beneath:
    in …

Inscriptions and Labels

Stamps, Seals, Labels:

  • Reverse of the panel: - top centre:

  • two labels with the numbers 'N36' and '231' in brown ink

    • beneath:

  • in red pen '25'

    • another label with a distich, also in brown ink:

  • 'En Cranachius integrum vitae hocce loque[nte]

  • Vultu Lutherum peniculo exhibuit

  • G.C. Beir(eis)'

  • (translation: 'low and behold, with his brush Cranach has depicted Luther with a meaningful expression, befitting his decorum')

    • directly beneath:

  • label with the number '130'

  • [Cat. Kassel 1997, 82]

  • [Exhib. Cat. Bremen 2009, no. 12]

Owner
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel
Repository
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Kassel
Location
Kassel
CDA ID
DE_MHK_GK17
FR (1978) Nr.
FR314-315E
Persistent Link
https://lucascranach.org/en/DE_MHK_GK17/

Provenance

  • the portrait was [together with its pendant, cda 2013] the property of the doctor, scholar and collector Gottfried Christoph Beireis (b. 1730 Mühlhausen/Thüringen, d. 1809 Helmstedt). He is the author of the distich on the reverse of the panel.
  • acquired in 1891 from the art dealer Klingelhöfer, Marburg

[Cat. Kassel 1997, 82]

Exhibitions

Bremen 2009, no. 12
Gotha, Kassel 2015, no. 35

Literature

Reference on page Catalogue Number Figure / Plate
Exhib. Cat. Florence 2017 66 under no. 2
EditorFrancesca de Luca, Giovanni Maria Fara
Title I volti della Riforma. Lutero e Cranach nelle collezioni medicee [Uffizi, Florence]
Place of PublicationFlorence, Milan
Year of Publication2017
Show Literature
Exhib. Cat. Gotha, Kassel 2015 156, 157 35 Pl. p. 157
EditorJulia Carrasco, Justus Lange, Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein, Gotha, Benjamin D. Spira, Timo Trümper
TitleBild und Botschaft. Cranach im Dienst von Hof und Reformation, [Gotha, Herzogliches Museum; Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe]
Place of PublicationHeidelberg
Year of Publication2015
Show Literature
Exhib. Cat. Bremen 2009 12
EditorRainer Stamm
TitleLucas Cranach der Schnellste
Place of PublicationBremen
Year of Publication2009
Show Literature
Cat. Kassel 1997 82-86
AuthorAnja Schneckenburger-Broschek
EditorStaatliche Museen Kassel
TitleAltdeutsche Malerei. Die Tafelbilder und Altäre des 14. bis 16. Jahrhunderts in der Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister und im Hessischen Landesmuseum Kassel. Bestandskatalog Staatliche Museen Kassel
Place of PublicationMunich
Year of Publication1997
Show Literature
Cat. Kassel 1996 88-89
EditorBernhard Schnackenburg
TitleGesamtkatalog Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister. Staatliche Museen Kassel
Place of PublicationMainz
Year of Publication1996
Show Literature
Exhib. Cat. Kronach 1994 354
EditorClaus Grimm, Johannes Erichsen, Evamaria Brockhoff
TitleLucas Cranach. Ein Maler-Unternehmer aus Franken [Festung Rosenberg, Kronach 17.05 - 21.08.1994; Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig 07.09 - 06.11.1994]
SeriesVeröffentlichungen zur bayerischen Geschichte und Kultur
Volume26
Place of PublicationAugsburg, Coburg
Year of Publication1994
Show Literature
Kokoska 1994 118
AuthorKira Judith Kokoska
TitleDie Melanchthon-Bildnisse von Lucas Cranach d. Ä. und Lucas Cranach d. J. bzw. der Cranach-Werkstatt. Ein systematisierender Katalog [Magisterarbeit Universität Heidelberg]
Place of Publication[Heidelberg]
Year of Publication1994
Show Literature
Cat. Kassel 1982 19, 63 90
AuthorAnja Schneckenburger-Broschek
TitleDie Altdeutsche Malerei. Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Kassel
Place of PublicationKassel
Year of Publication1982
Show Literature
Friedländer, Rosenberg 1979 131 314-315E
AuthorMax J. Friedländer, Jakob Rosenberg
EditorG. Schwartz
TitleDie Gemälde von Lucas Cranach
Place of PublicationBasel, Boston, Stuttgart
Year of Publication1979
Show Literature
Thulin 1961 187
AuthorOskar Thulin
TitleMelanchthons Bildnis und Werk in zeitgenössischer Kunst
Publicationin Walter Elling, ed., Philipp Melanchthon. Forschungsbeiträge zur vierhundertsten Wiederkehr seines Todestages dargeboten in Wittenberg 1960
Place of PublicationGöttingen
Year of Publication1961
Pages180-193
Show Literature
Cat. Kassel 1958 47 17
AuthorHeinrich Vogel
TitleKatalog der Staatlichen Gemäldegalerie zu Kassel
Place of PublicationKassel
Year of Publication1958
Show Literature
Friedländer, Rosenberg 1932 under No. 252-253
AuthorMax J. Friedländer, Jakob Rosenberg
TitleDie Gemälde von Lucas Cranach
Place of PublicationBerlin
Year of Publication1932
Link http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/friedlaender1932
Show Literature
Cat. Kassel 1929 18 17
AuthorK. Luhmer
TitleKatalog der Staatlichen Gemäldegalerie zu Kassel
Place of PublicationBerlin
Year of Publication1929
Show Literature
Cat. Kassel 1913 13, 58 17
AuthorG. Gronau
TitleKatalog der Königlichen Gemäldegalerie zu Cassel. Amtliche Ausgabe
Place of PublicationBerlin
Year of Publication1913
Show Literature

Research History / Discussion

In addition to the example in Kassel nine further versions exist of this double portrait type bearing the date 1543. They vary only slightly in the background colour. [1] The standardisation and the number created within one year suggest that they satisfied a large order, which served to disseminate an 'image', which had found its definitive expression for both reformers.[2]

[1]Cat. Kassel 1997, 86. Examples are the version in Schloss Gottorf (on loan from a private collection, Exhib. Cat. Bremen 2009, Nos. 10/11, fig.) and that sold in an auction in London (Sotheby's), 10 July 2008, No. 104.

[2] See Warnke 1984, 61 f.; Hinz 1994, 175. Kurt Löcher presumed that a supply was painting in advance and that the date could refer to the year the firat version was created and not the later repetitions, see Löcher, Cat. Nuremberg 1995, 370.

[Gerrit Walczak, Exhib. Cat. Gotha, Kassel 2015, 156]

[see also MHK online database, accessed 07.12.2020]

Connected Works

Portrait of Philipp Melanchthon
  • Portrait of Philipp Melanchthon, 1543
  • DE_MHK_GK18
  • Painting
  • Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel
  • Portrait of Martin Luther, 1543

Images

Compare images
  • overall
  • overall
  • reverse

Technical studies

1997Technical Examination

Support

- beech wood, vertical grain

- trimmed slightly on the left side

Reverse:

- original condition witha thin, black coating

- bevelled slightly at the edges

- worked with a block plane

[Cat. Kassel 1997, 82]

Condition Reports

Date1997

Recto:

  • the paint layers are slightly abraded, otherwise good condition

Verso:

  • original condition with a thin, black coating

  • slightly bevelled at the edges

[Cat. Kassel 1997, 82]

Date1988

  • examination for the catalogue

[Curatorial files, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Kassel]

Conservation History

Date1997

  • conservation treatment

[Curatorial files, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Kassel]

Date1973

  • restoration treatment on the occassion of the re-opening of the gallery

[Curatorial files, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Kassel]

Citing from the Cranach Digital Archive

Entry with author
<author's name>, 'Portrait of Martin Luther', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/DE_MHK_GK17/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})
Entry with no author
'Portrait of Martin Luther', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document, entry or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/DE_MHK_GK17/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})

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