Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg before Christ on the Cross

The man at prayer here, in red, is Albrecht of Brandenburg, archbishop of Mainz and of Magdeburg and, from 1518, a cardinal. To pay Rome for holding so many church offices at once he had borrowed from the Fugger bankers, and he was allowed a share of the money from an indulgence preached in his lands. On 31 October 1517 Martin Luther wrote to him in protest and enclosed his 95 theses. A few years later, sometime between 1520 and 1525, Albrecht had himself painted by Lucas Cranach, the Wittenberg court painter who was Luther's friend. The museum reads the picture as a vision. Albrecht looks into the distance, and the crucified Christ we see is the image before his inner eye. The red of his robe and cushion stands out from everything around it, as Christ's pale, scourged body stands out from the dark sky. In the same museum hangs Grünewald's panel of Saint Erasmus and Saint Maurice, where Albrecht appears as Erasmus.