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Secondary sourcePainting1547 (installed)

Reformation Altarpiece

Lucas Cranach the Elder and Lucas Cranach the Younger · 1547 (installed)

A large painted altarpiece in Wittenberg's town church showing Luther among Reformation leaders, including him preaching before the crucified Christ.

Luther is depicted preaching and seated among the apostles, showing how the church he led visualized its new theology after his death.

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Interior of a church chancel showing the multi-panel Reformation altarpiece with a central painting of a supper scene with Jesus and disciples, flanked by side panels, above a stone altar with a green cloth and flower vases. Vaulted stone ceiling and a crucifix overhead.
Lucas Cranach the Elder and Lucas Cranach the Younger, Reformation (Wittenberg Cranach) Altarpiece, installed 1547. Stadtkirche, Wittenberg.

About this source

What it is

A triptych altarpiece painted mainly by Lucas Cranach the Elder and finished by his son Lucas Cranach the Younger, installed in 1547 at the City Parish Church of St. Mary's in Wittenberg, a year after Luther's death.

Why it matters

The altarpiece visualizes core Lutheran beliefs about baptism, communion, and confession, placing real figures of the Reformation into biblical scenes: Luther appears as an apostle at the Last Supper and as a preacher pointing to the crucified Christ, alongside Philipp Melanchthon, pastor Johannes Bugenhagen, printer Hans Lufft, Cranach the Elder, and Luther's wife Katharina von Bora. It shows how the new Lutheran church used art to teach its theology to ordinary worshippers.

Look closer

  • Why might the painters have included real contemporary people, like Luther and his wife, inside biblical scenes?
  • What does placing Luther at the Last Supper or preaching before Christ suggest about his status to those who installed the altarpiece?
  • What theological ideas does each panel seem designed to teach to churchgoers?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Martin Luther on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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