Round Portrait of Martin Luther

On 13 June 1525 Martin Luther, the friar who had broken with Rome, married the former nun Katharina von Bora, and Cranach was among the guests. This small painted disc, barely the width of a hand, was his gift to the couple that day. He made it as one of a pair, Luther on this roundel and Katharina on its twin, the keepsake format people used to mark a betrothal or a close bond. The likenesses were wanted at once, and his workshop copied them for friends and relatives across Saxony. Near the edge sits a tiny winged serpent, the mark Cranach signed his work with, and the year beside it. Luther was 41 here, painted by a man who saw him most weeks, at the moment a private marriage was turning into public news.