Martin Lather Martin Luther used pictorial propaganda to further the Protestant cause. Mark Bryant looks at the work of those | artists who became hisallies—and those who became his enemies. Lutheran Lampoons Erricies Doctoris Martini LyTHERI AVGYSTINIANL BERGESIS. Lutheras amonkinspired by the Holy Spirtinan anonymous woodcut portrait o 1520. Fthe three traditional learned professions the church, the kaw ‘and medicine ~it isthe clergy that has suffered most at the hands of phic satirist, This was especially so during the Reformation in Leth century Germany when a propaganda war took place between the supporters of the Protestant theologian Martin Luther (1483-1546) and those who backed the established Roman Catholic Church, Luther's cause wwas supported by theartist Albrecht Darr and ‘others, especialy the painter Lucas Cranach (1472: who not only designed numerous Antichrist” images of the pope but alko produced satirical ‘woodcuts forthe first illustrated polemical book of the Reformation ‘The son of Hans Maler (or Muller), Cranach lace, Kronach, took his surname from his neat Coburg in Bavaria, After studying art he «eventually settled in Wittenber south-west of Berlin, as court painter to the electors sly 60 miles of Saxony: Later three times mayor of Wittenberg, he was also a publisher. apothecary and a close friend of Lather (who was a professor at Wittenberg University), acting asa witness at Luther's marti becom publishing Luther's German translation of the New Testament (1522), which contained 21 full-page illustrations of the Apocalypse by Cranach. When Luther nailed his famous ‘Ninety-Five Theses (attacki to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on October 31st, 1517 and, three years later, publicly burnt Pope Lco X’s papal bull condemning him, Cranach was steadfast in his support. Indeed, such was the effect of the work produced by Cranach and others that the Edit of Worms also the publication of any satirical images attacking the pops made at the Diets of Nuremberg in 1524 and Augsbu missioned many of the drawings, isalle «ave said of Cranach’s work: ‘Maddened the Pope with those pictures of mine, have I? If anyone feel hurt Tm ready to justify them before the hole _godtather to his eldest son and tried to censor not only Luther's works but further attempts were also sn 1530). Luther himself, who personally dito wwwrhistorytoday.com"Luther and Catherine von Bua ‘ananonymousandundated ‘attackon the Protestant, reformer andhiswife {Holy Roman} Empire. Ah how the sow wil tie the dung. And when they've done for me they'll goon dung eating just the same! Luther was the frst to use pictorial propaganda on a lag scale and ina letter he added: ‘On all the walls ‘on every sort of paper or plying cards, priests and monks re to be so portrayed that the people: disgusted when th The clergy have departed from the heats of the people: ‘One of Cranach’s best-known prints was" The Donkey Pope of Rome’ (1523), adapted from an calier drawing attributed to Wenceslas d’Olmiitz and featuring a female chimera representing the biblical ‘Whore of Babylon’ standing beside the River Tiber. ‘The Pope's Coat of Arms’ (1538) bby Cranach, was allegedly based on a design by Luther himself In this, both ends ofthe two crossed keys of St Peter (the symbol ofthe papacy) have see or hear of the clergy werwhiatorytodey.com “The Fallof the Pope into by Lucas Cranach from Philp Melanchthon's The Passionoe of Christand Anticrst 1521). ‘Martin tuther been broken off and the remaining shafts have been transformed into gallows poles from which hang judas and the pope. The books and pamphlets to which Cranach contribu 8 Philip Melanchthon’s The Passionale of Christ and Antichrist (1521), the first ilustrated book of the Reformation, with 26 images depicting paralel but opposite versions of the lives of Christ and the pope, and Luther’ own Agwinst the Papacy at Rome, Founded by the Devil (1545), sehich contains woodcuts satirisng the birth of the pope froma female demon. Cranach’s sons, Lucas the Younger and Hans (Johannes), also produced satirical images for their father's workshop and continued in similar vein afer his death in Weimar ‘on October Hoth, 155. The popular print “The Devil with Bagpipes’ (1521), hich has sometimes been attributed to Cranach, was actually by Erhard Seh@n (1491 1542). However, though Schon was a supporter of Lather it was used as propaganda by both sides, with Catholics believing that the head of the monk being played by the devil is actually a portrait of Luther himsell. Two later anti-pope images inspired by Luther had considerable impact on the history of caricature. These were the double-headed medal design (on one side isthe pope's head, which i inverted shows the devil, on the other appears a cardinal-fool inthe same manner) issued as tokens and later reproduced on pottery; and the put’ (Gorgon’s Head, 1371), showing a grotesque composite head of the pope, ‘which prompted the Catholie Giuseppe Acimbola (1530-93) to respond with a portrait of the French-born Protestant john Calvin made ‘out of fish, a frog and bits of chicken It inspired the famous and much imitated corpse-head! of Napoleon (1814) by the German artist Joha Michael Volt (1784-1858. Most ofthe drawings against Luther are the work of anonymous artists. These include‘ Luther’ Pact with the Devil! (1335), the tite page ofa book by the Dominican monk Petrus Sylvius which shows Luther shaking hands with Lucifer;"The Seven Headed Martin Luther’ (1529) froma book ofthe same name by Johannes Cochlacus (the heads include Fanatic and Barrabas): and’ Luther and Catherine von Bur’ (not dated), which shows Lather asa peddler earying the pope's triple crown asabe ‘Gorgoneum jing bow! or drinking cup while he pushes together with the heads and books. a wheelbarrow, His wife, von Bura, walks behind him. rR iyantis the euthor of Napoleonic Warn Cartoons (Gb Sweet, 2009). Foe further articles on ths subject, vist wun hstorytoday-com/drawingonhistory March 2010 HisoryZoday