.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
These two portraits represent Martin Luther and his wife, Katharina von Bora. Cranach's friendship with the two is well documented: as court painter in Wittenberg, Cranach found himself at the very centre of the Protestant Reformation; his patrons, the Saxon Electors, were also the protectors of Martin Luther and champions of his cause. Cranach and Luther were close personal friends and godfathers to each other's children. Cranach became the de facto official portraitist of Luther. Two engravings (both 1520; Hollstein, nos 6-7), dated three years after Luther posted the ninety-five theses at the castle church, show the Reformer as an Augustinian. The year Luther was excommunicated and took his stand at the Diet of Worms, Cranach portrayed him in another engraving, this time in profile, wearing the distinctive cap of the learned doctor of theology (1521; Hollstein, no. 8), and he recorded Luther's likeness in disguise as Junker Jörg while sequestered for his own safety at the Wartburg in a woodcut of 1522 (Hollstein, no. 132). Different versions of painted portraits by Cranach show Luther variously as a monk, as Junker Jörg, in pendant with Katharina von Bora and in pendant with Philip Melanchthon. He also painted companion portraits of Luther's parents, Hans Luther (1527) and Margaretha Luther (c. 1527; both Wartburg, Eisenach). Friedländer and Rosenberg, loc. cit, regard the present pair of portraits as the prime versions of this type (the other being the circular, bust-length portraits in the öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel), and note that they 'were done on the occasion of Luther's marriage'.
Katherine von Bora was born in 1499 outside Leipzig, the daughter of a member of the minor nobility. As a child, she was placed in the Cistercian nunnery of Marienthrone, near Grimma, where she became familiar with, and supportive of, Luther's ideas. In April 1523, with eight other nuns including her aunt and the sister of Johann von Staupitz - Luther's father confessor as a young monk - she escaped from the nunnery, hidden in empty herring barrels covered by canvas. They travelled to Wittenberg, where Katharina stayed in Cranach's household. Luther, who had become involved in their case through a mutual acquaintance, set out to find them husbands. Through his introduction, a courtship began with Jerome Baumgartner, a member of a noble family from Nuremberg, whose father refused his blessing to the match. Other suitors were presented to Katharina without success, including Dr. Caspar Glatz, pastor of Orlamünde - but Katharina found 'neither desire nor love' in herself for him - and Nicholas von Armsdorf, who did not wish to marry anyone, and finally she suggested Luther himself.
Luther had at the time begun to consider the possibility of marriage, although not for conventional reasons - he later wrote that he married for three reasons: to please his father, to spite the Pope and the devil, and to seal his witness before his martyrdom. In consequence, he accepted, and the couple were married on 13 June 1525 in a private ceremony at the Black Cloister, Wittenberg, which would become their home. Although based on unconventional premises, the success of the Luthers' marriage has become historically famous, partly due to Luther's extensive correspondence, in which he made frequent reference to his domestic life. On one occasion he was recorded as having said, 'I wouldn't give up my Katie for France or for Venice', and on another that 'In domestic affairs I defer to Katie. Otherwise, I am led by the Holy Ghost' - a sentiment readily understood when it is considered that, prior to his marriage, he had been known not to make his bed or change his linens for months, and at times had lived solely on a diet of dry bread and herring.
Katherine von Bora was born in 1499 outside Leipzig, the daughter of a member of the minor nobility. As a child, she was placed in the Cistercian nunnery of Marienthrone, near Grimma, where she became familiar with, and supportive of, Luther's ideas. In April 1523, with eight other nuns including her aunt and the sister of Johann von Staupitz - Luther's father confessor as a young monk - she escaped from the nunnery, hidden in empty herring barrels covered by canvas. They travelled to Wittenberg, where Katharina stayed in Cranach's household. Luther, who had become involved in their case through a mutual acquaintance, set out to find them husbands. Through his introduction, a courtship began with Jerome Baumgartner, a member of a noble family from Nuremberg, whose father refused his blessing to the match. Other suitors were presented to Katharina without success, including Dr. Caspar Glatz, pastor of Orlamünde - but Katharina found 'neither desire nor love' in herself for him - and Nicholas von Armsdorf, who did not wish to marry anyone, and finally she suggested Luther himself.
Luther had at the time begun to consider the possibility of marriage, although not for conventional reasons - he later wrote that he married for three reasons: to please his father, to spite the Pope and the devil, and to seal his witness before his martyrdom. In consequence, he accepted, and the couple were married on 13 June 1525 in a private ceremony at the Black Cloister, Wittenberg, which would become their home. Although based on unconventional premises, the success of the Luthers' marriage has become historically famous, partly due to Luther's extensive correspondence, in which he made frequent reference to his domestic life. On one occasion he was recorded as having said, 'I wouldn't give up my Katie for France or for Venice', and on another that 'In domestic affairs I defer to Katie. Otherwise, I am led by the Holy Ghost' - a sentiment readily understood when it is considered that, prior to his marriage, he had been known not to make his bed or change his linens for months, and at times had lived solely on a diet of dry bread and herring.