Studio of Lucas Cranach the Younger, Portrait of Martin Luther (1483-1546), half length, in a black robe, holding a prayer bookP

Studio of Lucas Cranach the Younger, Portrait of Martin Luther (1483-1546), half length, in a black robe, holding a prayer book

bears the artist's device of a winged serpent and dated upper right: 1537. oil on panel. 63.3 by 46.2 cm. Est. 30,000—40,000 EUR

PROVENANCE: In the collection of the present owner's family for at least two generations.

NOTE: Luther is shown holding the Bible open at the Letter of Paul to the Corinthians II, 10:4-5, presumably his own translation from the Latin Vulgate. Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) and Luther were close personal friends and godfathers to each other's children. As court painter in Wittenberg, Cranach was at the very centre of the Protestant Reformation, and became, from around 1520 onwards, the unofficial painter of his friend's portrait. This particular likeness is the last among Cranach's many Luther portrait types. The prototype, signed and dated 1539, is perhaps that recorded by Friedländer and Rosenberg in the collection of Dr. Emile Isambert in Paris.¹ The design was produced many times in the Cranach workshop in the 1540s and 1550s and beyond under the direction of Lucas Cranach the Younger. The portrait of Luther was often paired with a companion portrait of his friend and associate Philip Melanchthon (1497-1522). Good examples, from the hand of the younger Cranach himself, are in the Kisters Collection, Kreuzlingen.²

1. M.J. Friedländer and J. Rosenberg, The Paintings of Lucas Cranach, London 1978, p. 154, no. 423, reproduced.
2. Exhibited, Basel, Kunstmuseum, Lukas Cranach. Gemälde, Zeichnungen, Druckgraphik, June to September 1974, vol. II., pp. 718-9, nos. 647 and 648.

Sotheby's. Old Master paintings. 05 May 09. Amsterdam www.sothebys.com Photo courtesy Sotheby's