Manner Of Lucas Cranach The Elder
Portraits Of Martin Luther (1483–1546) And His Wife, Katharina Von Bora (1499–1552)
Estimate: 2.000 - 3.000 GBP
Price realised: 3.000 GBP
Price realised: 3.000 GBP
Description
Manner of Lucas Cranach the Elder
PORTRAITS OF MARTIN LUTHER (1483–1546) AND HIS WIFE, KATHARINA VON BORA (1499–1552)
both bearing the artist's device of a winged serpent, upper left and upper right, respectively
a pair, both oil on panel
In 1525 Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk, married Katharina von Bora, a former nun. Katharina von Bora had spent her life in cloisters since the age of five, but in her early twenties she became interested in the growing reform movement and applied directly to Luther. On 4 April 1523 Luther dispatched Leonhard Köppe, who regularly delivered herring to Katharina's monastery in Nimbschen, and she and several other nuns fled in secrecy to Witte
Luther arranged homes, marriages and employment for the former nuns. Katharina spent time living with Lucas Cranach the Elder and his wife Barbara, and had many suitors, but she appears always to have intended to marry Luther himself. The marriage itself was witnessed by a small number of close friends – including Cranach and Barbara – but shortly afterwards a prolific pictorial propaganda campaign was set in motion, declaring the couple's u
Cranach was the principal portraitist of the couple and produced a number of pendants of the pair throughout their lives. His earliest likenesses, produced from 1525 – such as those in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm – show a bare-headed, youthful Luther. 1 The present copies repeat the second type of portraits, which Cranach first produced in 1528. In these, although Katharina remains unchanged, Luther seems to have put on weight and
1 http://lucascranach.org/SE_NMS_5016
2 http://lucascranach.org/DE_HLMD_GK73a and http://lucascranach.org/DE_HLMD_GK73b
PORTRAITS OF MARTIN LUTHER (1483–1546) AND HIS WIFE, KATHARINA VON BORA (1499–1552)
both bearing the artist's device of a winged serpent, upper left and upper right, respectively
a pair, both oil on panel
In 1525 Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk, married Katharina von Bora, a former nun. Katharina von Bora had spent her life in cloisters since the age of five, but in her early twenties she became interested in the growing reform movement and applied directly to Luther. On 4 April 1523 Luther dispatched Leonhard Köppe, who regularly delivered herring to Katharina's monastery in Nimbschen, and she and several other nuns fled in secrecy to Witte
Luther arranged homes, marriages and employment for the former nuns. Katharina spent time living with Lucas Cranach the Elder and his wife Barbara, and had many suitors, but she appears always to have intended to marry Luther himself. The marriage itself was witnessed by a small number of close friends – including Cranach and Barbara – but shortly afterwards a prolific pictorial propaganda campaign was set in motion, declaring the couple's u
Cranach was the principal portraitist of the couple and produced a number of pendants of the pair throughout their lives. His earliest likenesses, produced from 1525 – such as those in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm – show a bare-headed, youthful Luther. 1 The present copies repeat the second type of portraits, which Cranach first produced in 1528. In these, although Katharina remains unchanged, Luther seems to have put on weight and
1 http://lucascranach.org/SE_NMS_5016
2 http://lucascranach.org/DE_HLMD_GK73a and http://lucascranach.org/DE_HLMD_GK73b
