Martin Luther as an Augustinian Monk,

1520

This year marks the five-hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, launched in Wittenberg by the German theologian Martin Luther (1483–1546) on or around October 31, 1517, when he challenged the authority of the Catholic Church with the proclamation of his Ninety-Five Theses against indulgences—papal certificates that could be purchased to gain forgiveness of sins and freedom from purgatory.

One of the earliest printed portraits of Luther is this engraving by his friend and supporter Lucas Cranach, who also published many of Luther’s polemical pamphlets. Here he is shown as a bareheaded and resolute monk of the Augustinian Order, which he had joined in 1506. The Latin inscription below the image implies that while Luther’s thoughts are eternal, Cranach’s image is ephemeral. Cranach also includes his personal insignia of a crowned winged serpent, which derived from the coat of arms conferred upon him by Elector Frederick the Wise in 1508.