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06.02.2018 13:20

Which image of Martin Luther can we trust?

Dr. Susanne Langer Kommunikation und Presse
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg

    Which image of Luther can we trust? Luther was the first media celebrity in history. No other person at that time has been portrayed as often, not even a pope or an emperor. Lucas Cranach the Elder played a major role in circulating the pictures. He was responsible for producing various images of the reformer: Luther as a pious monk, under the pseudonym of Junker Jörg, as the reformer or as a husband together with his wife Katharina von Bora. The more legends grew up surrounding the extraordinary man of the church and his growing following, the more pictures appeared.

    Many people were curious to see what the famous, controversial, venerable and despised man looked like, the man who had been accused of heresy by the Pope and outlawed by the Emperor in 1521.

    But did Luther really look like he does on the pictures? It is known that Cranach sketched likenesses of a person on paper before mass producing the paintings together with the workers in his workshop. No such sketch has survived of Luther, however. This begs the question of where and when the images of Luther were actually created. Do they really depict him at a certain moment of his life? Or do they bear witness to the later heroification and veneration of the reformer?

    A joint research project conducted by the Germanisches Nationalmuseum (GNM) in Nuremberg, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and TH Köln funded with nearly one million euros by the Leibniz Association is to explore these questions over the next three years. The art historian and expert in Old Masters Dr. Daniel Hess (GNM), the church historian Prof. Dr. Anselm Schubert, the computer science expert Prof. Dr. Andreas Maier (both FAU), the restorer and art historian Prof. Dr. Gunnar Heydenreich (TH Köln) and the head of the Institute for Art Technology and Conservation (IKK) at GNM, Oliver Mack M.A., are to collaborate to draw up a critical inventory of the early images of Luther dating from between 1519 and 1530.

    All Luther portraits from the period in question throughout the world are to be subjected to technological examinations, recorded digitally and their relative similarities analysed using special procedures. The partners in the project can draw on the experience Professor Heydenreich has with using the Cranach Digital Archive (lucascranach.org) and Professor Maier’s expert knowledge of digital pattern recognition. Physical analysis procedures and scientific methods will help date the images, allowing them to be assigned more reliably to a specific period in art history. By combining art history, art technology, reformation history and digital pattern recognition, the interdisciplinary project makes it possible for the authenticity of the images and accordingly their value as a source from the time of the reformation to be identified, both in view of the topics covered and the methods used.

    The same questions arise as we are faced with in today’s era of mass media: what can be considered to be authentic and what has been used for representative or even manipulative purposes? Which image of a person is genuine and which is fake? These modern-day experiences of dealing with images and pictures have also cast new questions relating to the past: how genuine are the images of Luther which we are so familiar with?

    A joint project between the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and TH Köln.
    Critical catalogue of Luther images (1519-1530)

    Research cooperation between the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and TH Köln

    Period: 2018-2020
    Approved funding: nearly one million euros
    Headed by: Dr. Daniel Hess (GNM), Prof. Dr. Anselm Schubert (FAU)

    Contact:
    Germanisches Nationalmuseum (GNM)
    Press Office
    Dr. Sonja Mißfeldt
    presse@gnm.de
    Tel. +49 (0)911 / 1331-103

    Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)
    Chair of Church History II (Modern church history)
    Prof. Dr. Anselm Schubert
    Tel.: +49 (0)9131 / 85 222 11
    anselm.schubert@fau.de

    TH Köln
    Communication and marketing, press and PR
    Monika Probst
    Tel. +49 (0)221 / 82 75 39 48
    pressestelle@th-koeln.de


    Bilder

    How authentic are Lucas Cranach's images of Luther? Investigations have shown that many portraits follow the same scheme (based on L. Cranach the Elder, Martin Luther as an Augustinian monk).
    How authentic are Lucas Cranach's images of Luther? Investigations have shown that many portraits fo ...
    Photo: GNM / Georg Janßen
    None

    Lucas Cranach the Elder/workshop: posthumous image of Martin Luther as an Augustinian monk, after 1546, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg
    Lucas Cranach the Elder/workshop: posthumous image of Martin Luther as an Augustinian monk, after 15 ...
    Photo: GNM / Georg Janßen
    None


    Merkmale dieser Pressemitteilung:
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    Geschichte / Archäologie, Informationstechnik, Kulturwissenschaften, Kunst / Design
    überregional
    Buntes aus der Wissenschaft, Forschungsprojekte
    Englisch


     

    How authentic are Lucas Cranach's images of Luther? Investigations have shown that many portraits follow the same scheme (based on L. Cranach the Elder, Martin Luther as an Augustinian monk).


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    Lucas Cranach the Elder/workshop: posthumous image of Martin Luther as an Augustinian monk, after 1546, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg


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