Ilze Krisane

SUMMARY OF “THE DEPICTION OF CHRIST IN PROTESTANT ART”

The main idea of the iconoclasm was to destroy images, because of the tradition of the
Catholic Church to treat them as live and possessing holy qualities. In reality people went from one
extreme to anther - by destroying paintings and crucifixes, they treated them as if they were live
people of flash and blood: images were flogged, or ordered to drink, or otherwise mocked. The
rituals of violence against crucifixes sometimes unconsciously echoed the events of the passion
itself, making even destruction of sacred art to become some kind of ritual.

Mob by religious uprising destroyed everything in their way – not analyzing. Revolutionary
feelings overtook human ability to judge own action and riots were transferred from the clergy and
the institution of Roman Catholic Church to nearby parish churches and everything in them.

Karlstadt in his works often criticized external means of the piety. In such way, he hoped to
raise the importance of the Word. This kind of glance back at early Christian focuses on the liturgy
and the Bible itself found its own way in the art of the early modern period. It was expressed as the
written texts and the quotes of the Holy Books in the paintings of Protestant art. Often text was used
to explain the picture, in order no misunderstandings to appear, which could later lead to the
emergence of legends and myths, as it happened with Catholic Church.

As all Protestants at the beginning of the reformation thought, Karlstadt demonstrated strong
opposition to the use of paintings and other expressions of art in church as means of education,
showing an example or leading to prayer and meditation. As puritanically tended priest, he
considered that the physical pleasures sidetracks attention of parish and art as the means of pleasure
can wake in humans only negative emotions.

Luther's position on images underwent several changes during the course of his life. These
changes reflected the development of his views on worship and the need for a sacred space for
communal worship. Although at the beginning of the formation of the Reformist thought he spoke
about abandonment of art for religious needs, than after the destruction of images in Wittenberg, he
distanced himself from the actions of the iconoclasts.

For Luther the basic dichotomy involved in the question of images was not that between spirit
and flesh, as it was for the Zwinglians, but that between salvation by faith and salvation by works.
The solution for Luther and his followers was a reformation in art that corresponded to a new way
of considering the cross.

The cross of Christ was at the center of Luther's theology. The cross and Christ moved from
the background of the Medieval Age tradition of Catholic Church to the front of the Protestant
theology and art of the new age. The crucifix became the source of the piety and godly wisdom.

By Luther’s concept, art had three main functions which were relatively important in
instructing the parish for their everyday and religious life. It was pedagogical, spiritual, and
exemplary functions, which were interlinking one with another.

Luther's theology also strongly emphasizes the cross as God's victory over the devil, sin, and
death. In art Christ is shown victorious even if the painting or carving is representing the
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crucifixion, because He is the symbol of the Gods almighty and love. And by this kind of art people
are encouraged to have faith and be obedient.

Calvin was influenced by early Protestant works, where Luther set in the idea of the
corrupted nature of art. But in comparison with Luther, Calvin stayed to this idea that images are
useless in religious piety. And although he was against using images in churches, his ideas and
theology influenced the development of sacred art.

Calvin strictly noted, that according to any kind of art, people can impersonate only things or
beings observed by the eye. Therefore the depiction of God was strongly forbidden, as pure
fabrication of our sinful imagination, but, as Christ had the flash and blood as all human beings, the
crucifixes were not prohibited, although Calvin did not support any kind of sacred art.

But comparing with Luther’s theology, Calvin concentrated more not on the crucifix, but
other realms as blood. That is brightly visible in Protestant art, as Christ’s body is often harshly
molded and bleeding, that in different situations brings different symbolic meaning to the whole
piece of art. Blood is considered to be the main symbol as the price for our sins.

Bloody and crucified body of Christ is not the only peculiarity of the Protestant art. The face
expression of the Son of God shows great pain of damnation. Calvin argues that it is the pain of
human body. Rather, he agonized in anticipation of the pains of hell. The calm and elevated look of
Jesus in Catholic traditions of passion is changed by Christ’s face marked by sufferings on the
cross.

Although the look of Christ in some cases can be even disturbing because of the blood and
wounds, and pain; in reality in pieces of art Jesus looks clean and untouched by all sorts of mockery
He had endured before the crucifixion. Calvin explains it as the works of the ungodly to carry out
the divine purposes, while remaining untouched by their evil acts.

In the scenes of Golgotha Mountain viewers can observe several events of different moments
of the narrative depicted in one painting or carving. It could be explained by Calvin’s attitude
towards salvation: it is the completion of the work of salvation that is the sign of the new life and is
given us.

The main problem in analyzing works of art is in fact that Protestant artists were born or
even had been raised and taught by Renaissance thought. It is just natural that early Protestant
paintings had a lot in common with Renaissance art and its elements. Art was gradually changing
and symbols of new religion slowly were introduced in art.

The primary topic is the place of the cross in salvation, as seen in theology and art.
Theologically, it involves the doctrines of sin, justification, redemption, and other religious topics.
Similarly, the subject raises attention to the aesthetics as well, including the place of art in society
and the way it communicates, and its relation to conceptual thought.

Protestants refused the free flight of the imagination as the source for the religious art. God’s
Word could only righteously lead an artist in the process of creation of the art which later inspired
parish and priests. Topics of the sacred art were carefully chosen from the most important science
of Holy Scripts looking from the theological point of view.

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Although sacred art may be used instrumentally, to convey a specific religious message, arts
in general have their separate lives, in which patrons, consumers, locations, talent (or lack of it),
tradition, materials, techniques, etc., play an important role, quite apart from the message that
religious art least ostensibly serves. And money played one of the most important parts of the
creation of art, because art (especially paintings) was a very expensive piece of prosperity. Not all
could afford it, even if they wanted. Therefore artists were forced to paint not what they really
would liked to or would preferred to, but instead what was the order of the patron or other noble
and at the same time rich men.

Reformation art as the Reformation itself had a lot of different phases and types. Some of the
artists found themselves in the middle between churches of different religions and concepts of art.

Durer’s art as transitional reformation art must be placed first of all within the context of
Renaissance humanism. His education showed his priorities in art. Durer made two trips to Italy,
including a special journey to Bologna (in 1507) to learn the “secrets” of the art of perspective. That
is brightly seen in his carvings in “Engraved Passion”, where a lot of painter’s attention is paid to
precise depiction of human body, putting emphasis on each and every smallest detail as muscles and
wounds.

He was also inspirited by Northern Humanist thought and it is possible that he also knew the
works of the neo-Platonist Ficino, which were available in Nuremberg. Various concepts form
different parts of Europe came into Germany and slowly went into the direction of the Reformation,
before the idea of the Reformation itself was formulated.

Although there were a lot of medieval traditions and Catholic Church symbolic elements in
his works, the influence of the Northern Humanistic thought through the interpretation of the Holy
Scripts was introduced. In his carvings “the Small Passion” (1511) Christ’s expression of face is
changed from traditionally esthetically exalted as in Renaissance paintings to flinched in pain. In his
carvings “the Large Passion” (1498) Durer in scenes of passion slowly turns from Mary as a central
object and puts Jesus and his sufferings in the middle of painters own art.

Durer’s success as an artist gave him entry into a high level of society in Nuremberg. He was
named a member of the city's Great Council, and associated with educated and cultured members of
the gentry. He studied languages, and was able to read Latin. His best friend was Willibald
Pirckheimer, a well-educated humanist; it was he who introduced Durer to the classics, and
informed him about philosophy and archeology. Durer was probably employed by the humanist
Emperor Maximilian I because of humanistic qualities as well as for his technical skill.

And although most of his paintings and carvings were made before Reformation, Durer is
considered to be semi-reformist painter, because a lot of his works gained recognition from Luther
and later were printed as illustrations in reformist books of God’s Word and the Gospels.

Lukas Cranach as one of the most important painters in postulation of Protestantism art, by
the time of the Reformation, he was a famous and rich man, one of the leading citizens of the city of
Wittenberg, where he was a court painter to the Duke-Elector of Saxony, who later became Luther's
protector. He had as well close relationships with Luther himself.

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Cranach supervised the printing of Luther's propaganda booklets, designed woodcuts for the
German version of the New Testament, and painted Protestant princes and reformers. Most
importantly he worked with Luther and under his influence to create a new style and subject matter
to fit the new reformed approach to faith. Ideology and art went hand in hand. Art was not
abolished, but served as means of help in Protestant sermons by visualizing theological concepts.

It is especially vivid in Lukas Cranach’s group of several versions of a painting of the

crucified Christ with the converted centurion what was made in the course of the years 1536–39. It
is considered that these paintings introduce new symbolism of Reformist church and Protestant art.
In the composition of the passion the place of Mary is taken by centurion who represented secular
power and usually was patron of Protestant Church or the painter. In Cranach’s case the face of the
centurion bears a similarity to portraits of the Elector of Saxony, Cranach's patron.

Depiction of a human body did not have esthetic function, but served symbolic representation
of person’s inner world. In paintings like “by portrayal of criminals who were crucified together
with Christ, the “good” one is figured as thin, pleasantly looking man with calm face expression,
but the “bad” one is represented as heavy, angry looking man with face expressing suffering. It was
representing the power of penance of the sins and redemption.

By his works, Cranach tried to reduce the importance of Virgin Mary as the individual saint.
In paintings of passion as “Crucifixion” (1503) Mary is shown not alone under the cross or with
other woman like Mary Magdalena or Anna, but with Josef, symbolizing sacred instance of
marriage and woman main role as wife and mother.

Altarpieces stepped back from Renaissance tradition of capturing the beauty of a moment and
tried to combine the whole story in one picture. Bright example is different variations of Cranach’s
perception of “The Law and the Gospel” or also called as “The Justification of the Sinner”; one of
them made in 1539. It covers subject starting with the Fall of Adam and Eve and finishing with the
Resurrection of Christ. It covers the whole history of the sin and salvation from it. It is the main
topic in Reformist theology as well.

The most famous work of Cranach was Wittenberg’s Altarpiece “The Last Supper and Scenes
from the Life of Martin Luther” in Marienkirche. It represents Luther’s idea of the ideal sacred
institution, which works in the same way as Christ with his apostils. In the lowest panel he shows
the service of Luther, where between the priest and his parish is only Christ, no other mediator.
Church in the background is depicted bleak and plain and the parish is attentively looking at Jesus
in front of them. Luther in this painting stands in a pulpit with the Bible in front of him and with
one hand points to bleeding Son of God. Nothing draws attention away from the most important in
the ceremony and liturgy – Christ.

Cranach considered that his power of painter was a gift from God; therefore he was helping
Luther to bring people closer to the understanding of God’s will and commandments by using his
talent of painting. This idea was depicted in Cranach’s sons - Lukas Cranach the Younger - painting
“Weimar Altarpiece”, where he portrays his father standing next to the cross of Christ between John
the Baptist and Luther and the blood of Jesus stream on Cranach’s the Elder forehead as a symbol
of the Gods blessing.

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RECOMMENDED READING LIST

1. Christensen, C.C. Art and the Reformation in Germany. Athens: Ohio University Press. 1979

2. Coulton, G.G. Art and the Reformation. New York: Cambridge University Press. 1953.

3. Dixon, C.S. Protestants: A History from Wittenberg to Pennsylvania 1517 – 1740. Oxford:
Wiley-Blackwell. 2010

4. Heal, B. The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany: Protestant and Catholic Piety,
1500 – 1648. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2007

5. Kreitzer, B. Reforming Mary: Changing Images of the Virgin Mary in Lutheran Sermons of the
Sixteenth Century. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004

6. Michalski, S. The Reformation and the Visual Arts: The Protestant Image Question in Western
and Eastern Europe. London: Routledge. 1993

7. Viladesau, R. The Triumph of the Cross: The Passion of Christ in Theology and the Arts, from
the Renaissance to the Counter-Reformation. New York: Oxford University Press. 2008

8. The Cambridge History of Christianity: Reform and Expantion 1500 – 1660. Ed.: Po-Chia Hsia,
R. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2007.