Notable Lutheran Artist

There have been several famous Lutheran artists throughout history. Here are four notable ones:

Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553): Lucas Cranach was a German painter and printmaker who was a close associate of Martin Luther. He is known for his portraits of Luther and other figures of the Protestant Reformation. He also created numerous religious paintings and woodcuts with Lutheran themes. Here is a introduction to his life and work.

Martin and Katarina Luther, portrait by Lucas Cranach the Elder

Altarpiece in the Weimar parish church St. Peter and Paul

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Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528): Albrecht Dürer was a renowned German painter, printmaker, and mathematician. While he was not exclusively a Lutheran artist, he lived during the time of the Reformation and produced works that reflected his Lutheran faith. Learn more about him and his work here.

The Resurrection, from "The Large Passion"

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Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): Bach, a famous composer and musician, was a devout Lutheran. Much of his music, including his choral and organ compositions, was composed for Lutheran church services. Listen to Bach’s beautiful setting of the Lutheran Mass here.

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Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840): Friedrich was a German Romantic landscape painter, and his works often contain religious and spiritual themes. He was influenced by Lutheran pietism and his faith is evident in many of his paintings.

The Wanderer

Cross and Cathedral in the Mountains, 1812

Albrecht Durer and the Reformation of the Church

The follow article written by Pr. Matthew Ballmann was first published in the Lutheran Ambassador in 2015. I am republishing on this 506th anniversary of the Reformation.

As we celebrate the 498th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation and remember the individuals used by God to bring it about, we also do well to remember the individuals who were impacted by and served as key supporters of it. The German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer was such a man. While some in the American church may know Dürer or his art, chances are he is nothing more than a strange name you just read for the first time. Allow me the privilege to introduce you to this incredibly gifted man who was a key recipient and supporter of the Reformation. 

Albrecht Durer, The Man

Albrecht Dürer was born in 1471 to Albrecht and Barbara Dürer. He was the eldest son and third of eighteen children, fifteen of which would die at a young age. His father was a Hungarian immigrant who moved to the city of Nuremberg, Germany where he worked as a goldsmith. When Durer the Younger was only thirteen, he became an apprentice to his father in Nuremberg to learn how to be a goldsmith. After only two years of apprenticing, and to the displeasure but support of his father, Albrecht left to do what he really wanted to do - paint. 

After leaving his father’s tutelage he went on to apprentice for three years under the painter and printmaker Michael Wolgemut (1434-1519) also in Nuremberg. Wolgemut was the first German painter to design woodcuts as illustrations for the newly developed printed book. It was under Wolgemut that Durer learned the art of woodcut, a skill that would play a crucial role in his career and influence upon the world. After three years under Wolgemut, he went on for an additional two years as a journeyman in which he traveled to Basel, Switzerland. Upon his return to Nuremberg in 1494, Dürer married Agnes Frey in an arranged marriage. They would have no children together.

What was Durer’s relationship to the Protestant Reformation?

While we have no record of him formally renouncing Roman Catholicism, his Protestant sympathies are evident in much of his art and letters. He evidently had suffered some level of judgment for these sympathies when he wrote the following in 1524, “because of our Christian faith we have to stand in scorn and danger, for we are reviled and called heretics.” It was especially the teaching that began the Protestant Reformation, that is the forgiveness of sins by grace, through faith, in Christ, that so powerfully influenced Durer and his work. Interestingly, it was the preaching of Johan von Staupitz, Luther’s mentor and Vicar General of the German Congregation of Augustinians, that first moved Durer to embrace the rediscovered evangelical theology. 

It was not just Staupitz that influenced Durer, but Luther too had a significance influence on his thinking. When Friedrich the Wise sent Dürer one of Luther's books in 1520, Dürer wrote the following to the Elector's secretary, “I pray Your Honor to convey my humble gratitude to His Electoral grace, and beg him humbly that he will protect the praiseworthy Dr. Martin Luther for the sake of Christian truth. It matters more than all the riches and power of this world, for with time everything passes away; only the truth is eternal.” It was Luther who helped Dürer find release from his spiritual distress through the preaching of the forgiveness of sins through Christ’s death and resurrection.  

Dürer spent the majority of his life living in Nuremburg creating and selling art. Whether it woodcuts, engravings, paintings, or drawings, his work captured the attention and imagination of his contemporary artist and culture at large. When Luther heard of his death 1528, he wrote, “It is natural and right to weep for so excellent a man.” Today Dürer remains among the most admired artists in the history of German art. 

Famous Works 

As many of the great artist of his day, Dürer had a wide spectrum of skills. He created alter pieces for churches, portraits of both religious and political leaders, and engravings and woodcuts for printed material. To get an idea of the volume he created, today we have about a hundred of his paintings, some one hundred engravings, and roughly two hundred woodcuts. In addition, we have over 1,200 drawings, sketches, and watercolors. From these he was most known and renowned for graphic works. These were created from woodcuts or engravings. Artists across Europe admired and copied Durer’s innovative and powerful prints, ranging from religious and mythological scenes, to maps and exotics animals. The vast majority of his works have biblical images as their objects.

Dürer's earliest major work, The Apocalypse, was a series of large prints illustrating the book of Revelation, with the Scripture on the reverse side. Dürer's large illustrations were detailed and full of energy. His Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse has never been surpassed. 

He followed The Apocalypse with a series of seventeen cuts entitled The Life of the Virgin and a large and small series on the Passion of Christ. These illustrations were designed to be used especially by teachers and clergy, but in a day before widespread literacy, could also be important devotional tools for Christian laymen. The Passion of Christ woodcuts are especially powerful in their communication of the suffering of our Savior. 

Other famous works include Knight, Death, and Devil in which he portrays a knight in battle armor, pike in hand, riding down a dangerous road located in a valley. On either side of the knight there are two hideous looking creatures. One is holding an hourglass in his hand representing the inevitability of death (common in many of Durer’s works) and the other creature, resembling a goat, is holding a pike in its hand as if looking for a chance to knock the knight off his horse. The valley of course represents the valley of the shadow of death and the trials of life. Off in the distance there is a large and magnificent castle, the destination of every Christian, heaven. 

Another of his most well known works is St. Jerome in His Study. Portraying an elderly Jerome sitting in a room with streams of sun rays coming through the windows. Besides the seated saint are books, timepieces, writings, and many other object, all of which carry some symbolic meaning. One such symbol in the room is a human skull, which was meant to serve as a reminder to Jerome of the inevitability of death (memento mori). If you follow Jerome’s line of eye site to the skull there stands a cross of the crucified Savior, reminding him that death has been defeated through Christ Jesus.  

Durer’s final great work, a painting, The Four Holy Men - Sts. John, Peter, Mark and Paul, was presented to the Nuremberg City Council as a gift. Below the painting Dürer attached a short message which spoke to the danger of the Roman Catholic Church’s teaching and at the same time affirmed the Protestant commitment to the authority of Scripture, “All worldly rulers in these dangerous times should give good heed that they receive not human misguidance for the Word of God, for God will have nothing added to His Word nor taken away from it. Hear therefore these four excellent men, Peter, John, Paul, and Mark and their warning." 

While there is an extraordinary number other powerful pieces we could consider, suffice it to say that Albrecht Durer was a man who was an extremely gifted artist, believed in the good news of forgiveness of sins through Christ by grace through faith, and used his gifts for the proclamation of God’s Word and the glory of God. 

For more on Durer’s life and work. And here.

Bring them here to me

“BRING THEM HERE TO ME” - JESUS

The Holy Gospel of Matthew 14:13-21

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. 15 Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” 16 But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” 17 They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” 18 And he said, “Bring them here to me.” 19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. 21 And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

This gospel reading is a beautiful picture of our Lord's heart towards us in so many levels:

1. Our Lord responds to the needs of the crowds pressing upon him with compassion.

This word compassion denotes an inward experience and feeling, that is, deep within himself he felt for the needs of the crowd and longed to help them. Jesus will use this same word in the parable of the prodigal son to describe God's love for us, "So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him" (Luke 15:20).

Did you know that our Lord Jesus has compassion for you? He has compassion for YOU! He has compassion for you in each area that you struggle with guilt, grief, fear, and insecurity. He deeply feels for you in each of those areas. But he doesn't only feel, he acts. And that brings us to the second picture of His love towards us.

2. Our Lord is moved by His compassion to bring healing and sustenance into our lives.

He brought healing not simply in a generic way, but specifically by touching each of them individually, this was always his way. This is still His way. Jesus died the cross for the whole world but applies that forgiveness to us individually and personally as His Word is proclaimed to us and the waters of baptism are poured upon us. Jesus is there, speaking to us and washing us. The healing Jesus brings is more than just physical healing in this lifetime, it is spiritual healing for both this life and the next. It is the restoration of our humanity in Him.

We see our Lord's compassion as He not only heals them, but as they begin to hunger He miraculously feeds them! This harkens us back to God miraculously feeding the children of Israel in the wilderness with food from heaven (Manna) and meat from the sky (quail). Our Lord continues to feed His children with a heavenly food (John 6) in the Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus. The same power that Jesus exercised to multiply the fives loaves and two fish, is the same power He makes Himself present in each gathering of believers around the globe at the altar. And this gift brings us to a third act of compassion and love. 

3. Our Lord's healing and sustenance brings a deep and abiding satisfaction.

The meal is multiplied by Jesus, given to the disciples, distributed to the people, extra is collected after, and in all this, they were satisfied. They ate until they needed no more. What a beautiful picture! This same satisfaction is what our Lord bestows to us in Holy Communion. He gives us just enough to satisfy us for this time. And then He does it all again next week, and again the week after, again the week after that, all the way until he returns.

4. Our Lord invites us to bring our small contributions to Him so that He can use them how He sees fit for His kingdom. 

Jesus didn't ask for the richest person to donate, or the most gifted cook to step up, or the hardest worker; he simply said "bring them [what you have] to me." Jesus took these small portions for a single person and by His power multiplied them. We often can feel as if what we have doesn't amount to much. Our time seems to small, our energy too  little, and our resources too thin. But Jesus isn't asking for us to do the miracle, He's asking us to give what we have to Him and let Him decide what He wants to do with it.

I invite you to give to Jesus what you have. Give Him your exhausted parenting, your broken relationships, your thin finances, your feeble prayers, and distracted listening. He can take those small efforts and use them in your life and the lives of those around you in ways you could never imagine. 

This is who our Lord Jesus is. This is what our Lord Jesus does.

He has compassion on you, He heals you by freely forgiving you your sins, He feed you in the Holy Eucharist, He satisfies you spiritually and emotionally in Himself, and He multiplies our little.  

A Holy Week Reading Plan

A nice devotional practice for Holy Week is reading the events of Holy Week on the days they occurred. The following is a chronological reading suggested by esv.org with minor tweaks.

Palm Sunday: Matthew 21:1-11, 17; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:28-44; John 12:12-18, 20-36.

Holy Monday: Matthew 21:18-19, 12-13; Mark 11:12-17, 19; Luke 19:45-46

Holy Tuesday: Matthew 21:20-25:46; Mark 11:20-21; 11:27-12:44; 13:1-37; Luke 20:1-21:4; 21:4-36

Holy Wednesday: Matthew 26:3-5; Mark 14:1-2; Luke 22:1-2

Maundy Thursday: Matthew 26:17-46; Mark 14:12-26, 32-42; Luke 22:7-46; John 13:1-17:26; 1 Cor 11:23-25

Good Friday: Matthew 26:47-27:61; Mark 15:43-15:47; Luke 22:47-23:54; John 18:2-24; 18:28-19:42

Holy Saturday: Matthew 27:62-66; Luke 23:56

Easter: Matthew 28:1-20; Mark 16:1-20; Luke 24:1-53; John 20:1-21:25; 1 Cor 15:5