Portrait of Martin Luther

The theologian and reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546) became a close friend of Lucas Cranach the Elder's in Wittenberg while the latter was court painter to the Electors of Saxony. Luther met Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560) circa 1518 when the latter was a young humanist scholar at the University of Wittenberg. Since Melanchthon went on to become Luther's colleague and ally, the two reformers were often shown together and Cranach (and his studio) produced numerous double-portraits of the sitters [...].

the portraits were executed in two phases. These panels relate to later variants of the subject, showing the sitters with grey hair, shorter beards, and distinctly older. By the time they were painted - probably in the late 1550s, given the incomplete date on the Portrait of Philip Melancthon and the age of the sitters - Lucas Cranach the Younger had taken over the running of his father's workshop.

[Sotheby's onlnie database; http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2005/old-master-paintings-day-sale-l05032/lot.111.html?locale=en; accessed 08-03-2019]