Die vier Apostel

Dürer painted these two tall panels in 1526, in Nuremberg, and then did something unusual with them. He gave them to the city council as a gift. By that year Nuremberg had officially gone over to Luther's Reformation, and Dürer, near the end of his life, had gone with it. Four holy men stand shoulder to shoulder, John and Peter on one panel, Mark and Paul on the other, with John pushed to the front holding an open Gospel, a Protestant nudge toward scripture over church authority. The real message sits along the bottom edge. There, in careful lettering, Dürer set passages from Luther's German Bible warning worldly rulers to beware false prophets and not mistake human error for God's word. It was a painting meant to hang where the council met and to keep watching over their decisions.