Portrait of Martin Luther

This portrait dates from 1543, when Martin Luther was about 60 and had three years left to live. By then the monk who had once been an outlaw of the empire was the elder figurehead of a church that had spread across much of northern Europe. Cranach shows him in the plain black gown of a doctor of theology, holding a small book bound in black, the reformer defined by the text rather than by any office or wealth. Look to the surface of the panel for the painter's mark, a small winged serpent, the sign Cranach used in place of a signature across his workshop. The picture is small, barely larger than a hand, made to be owned and kept close rather than shown in a hall.