Luther on his death bed

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Luther on his deathbed or Luther in death or Luther on his deathbed is the motif and title of several works of art that show the late reformer Martin Luther . At least one drawing was created directly on Luther's body and could have been the template for a picture that was probably worked out in the Cranach workshop and distributed in numerous copies.

Harald Meller describes this likeness as follows: The dead Luther lies "with peacefully relaxed facial features and clad in a white, creased death shirt with hands folded on a suggested white pillow." It was important for Luther's contemporaries and followers to prove that Luther went home peacefully and in harmony with God and was not taken by the devil. With this the "proof of the legitimation of the Reformation" had been provided.

Overview of the known paintings

Location Dimensions, material, technology literature Description and literature image
Hanover, Lower Saxony State Museum , Inv. No. Städtische Galerie KM 107 33.5 × 25.3 cm, oak wood Ficker 283, Stuhlfauth 8, Dieck 1 Marked with the Cranach logo.

Head tilted half to the right, the whole upper body, the whole right hand and the wrist of the left hand are visible. The shirt has sewn-in shirt sleeves, a narrow band between the sleeve ruff and shirt, but not between the ruff and shirt, and is open on the left side of the neck.

The picture in Hanover, ascribed to the older Cranach or his workshop, is considered the oldest and best copy among the numerous repetitions of the motif. It came into the possession of the Städtische Galerie Hannover through various private collections in the 19th century.

The picture in Hanover and the representation in the DHM today belong together in Stuhlfauth's view. The criterion he calls the design of the dead garment wearing Luther in these pictures: While the sleeve of this gown emerge on the other images without seams or other transition from the middle part of the garment, they are on these two images just like on Gulden Mundt Print sewn in. Furthermore, in these two pictures the ruff is attached directly to the skullcap, while in the other pictures there is a small ribbon between the ruff and the smock. On the basis of these observations, Stuhlfauth assigns these two pictures the status of the earliest portraits of Luther's dead and dates them to the year 1546. Of these two pictures, in turn, the painting in Hanover, according to Stuhlfauth, deserves the palm because it, e.g. B. in the slightly crooked mouth, which shows Luther's suffering, as evidenced by eyewitness accounts, much more clearly than the Berlin picture. Stuhlfauth sees in this painting a work of art created after the picture of the unknown painter from Eisleben, whether by his own hand it is unknown, he leaves open. More recent research also sees the board largely as a copy of the drawing of the unknown Eislebener.

Johannes Ficker goes one step further and assigns the picture directly to the Eisleben painter in Hanover. The sketch for this was made in the early morning between seven and nine o'clock before the rigor mortis began .

Lower Saxony State Gallery Hanover, Inv. No. SG KM 107
German Historical Museum Berlin, Inv. No. Gm 2010/1 40.5 × 29.6 cm, wood Ficker 284, Stuhlfauth 9, Dieck 2 Marked with the Cranach logo.

Head tilted half right. The whole upper body, both hands (left without fingertips) are visible. The shirt sleeves are sewn in, the sleeve ruffles have ribbons, the shirt is open on the left neck.

Luther's shirt is a little less plain in this version than z. B. shown on the Dresden picture, the cuffs are more pleated.

The picture was in the collection of Raffael Schuster-Woldan in Berlin-Charlottenburg in 1927 ; its subsequent whereabouts are largely unknown; it was acquired by the DHM in 2010.

DHM, Inv. No. Gm 2010/1
Leipzig, private property Ficker 285, Stuhlfaut -, Dieck 3 Head tilted half right. The whole upper body, both hands (left without fingertips) are visible. The shirt sleeves are sewn in, the sleeve ruffles have ribbons, the shirt is open on the left neck.
Hall, State Museum Ficker 286, Stuhlfauth -, Dieck 4 Head tilted half right. The whole upper body, the whole right hand and the wrist of the left are visible. The shirt sleeves are sewn in, the sleeve ruffles have ribbons, the shirt may be open.
Helmstedt Ficker 287, Stuhlfauth -, Dieck 5 Head tilted half right. The whole upper body, the whole right hand and the wrist of the left are visible. The shirt sleeves are not sewn in, the sleeves and ruffles have no ribbons, the shirt is closed.
Leipzig, University Collection, Inv. No. 1951: 180 63.5 × 48.8 cm, on linden wood Ficker 288, Stuhlfauth 10, Dieck 6 Head tilted half right. The whole upper body, the whole right hand and the wrist of the left are visible. The shirt sleeves are not sewn in, the ruff has a ribbon, the shirt is closed.

The painting comes from an old possession of the university library. It was "completely disintegrated" in the middle of the 19th century and was extensively restored between 1895, when it was worm-eaten, and 1927, as it gave Stuhlfauth a very smooth and completely intact impression.

This larger of the two Luther portraits in Leipzig was once regarded as an autograph work by Furtenagel, after the date 1574 was found in one corner of the picture, but the thesis was rejected again. Dating is now considered secondary. Instead of Furtenagel, the high-quality painting is now attributed to the Cranach workshop.

Leipzig, University Collection, Inv. No. 1951: 180
Leipzig, University Collection, Inv. No. 0633/90 50 × 34 cm, wood Ficker 289, Stuhlfauth 21, Dieck 7 Head tilted half right. The whole upper body, the whole right hand and the wrist of the left are visible. The shirt sleeves are sewn in, the ruff has a ribbon, the shirt is closed.

The smaller Leipzig portrait was also temporarily viewed as an original by Furtenagel, which Stuhlfauth also rejects. However, he believes it is possible that the smaller Leipzig painting is a student-like copy of an original that goes back to Furtenagel, and that Furtenagel actually, as the pharmacist reported, created two pictures. The Cranach workshop, however, benefited from the portrait of the unknown painter from Eisleben and not from Furtenagel.

This painting was distributed as book decoration through an engraving by Johann Martin Bernigeroth ( portrait of Martin Luther in a death shirt ) in 1746 on the 200th anniversary of the reformer's death.

Leipzig, University Collection, Inv. No. 0633/90
Wittenberg, Lutherhaus, Inv. No. G 37 65.6 × 48.2 cm, wood Ficker 290, Stuhlfauth 12, Dieck 8 Head tilted half right. The whole upper body and the right hand are visible. The shirt sleeves are not sewn in, the ruff has a ribbon, the shirt is closed. The Luther rose can also be seen in the top left of the painting .

The painting came into the possession of the Lutherhalle from the collection of the senior consistorial councilor Augustin, who died in 1853.

Unknown, privately owned. Former Munich, Dreher Collection 63 × 51 cm, wood Ficker 291, Stuhlfauth 13, Dieck 9 Head tilted half right. The whole upper body, the whole right hand and the wrist of the left are visible. The shirt sleeves are not sewn in, the ruff has a ribbon, the shirt is open. A three-line Latin inscription above Luther's head gives the time of death and the age of the deceased, to the left of the head there is an eight-line Latin praise poem in a smaller font.

The panel may come from the church in Rheinfelden, was in Konrad Dreher's collection around 1910 and was auctioned off on October 1, 1919 at Helbing in Munich as a painting attributed to Cranach. Since then, the tablet has been in unknown private ownership.

Dresden, State. Art collections , Old Masters Picture Gallery, Inv. No. 1955 64 × 50.5 cm, linden wood Ficker 292, Stuhlfauth 11, Dieck 10 Head tilted half right. The whole upper body, the whole right hand and the wrist of the left are visible. The shirt sleeves are not sewn in, the ruff and the sleeve ruffles have ribbons, the shirt is closed.

The panel probably came from the possession of the court architect Giovanni Maria Nosseni (1544–1620) and came from him to the Kunstkammer, where it is documented from 1621. In the early 18th century the picture was on the Moritzburg , in the 19th century it was moved to the Dresden picture gallery.

In the middle of the 19th century, Julius Hübner also attributed the picture to Furtenagel, while Karl Woermann attributed it to the works of the Cranach workshop for stylistic reasons. In more recent publications, the picture was dated to 1574, based on the dating of the larger Leipzig variant, regardless of its secondary character.

Dresden, Old Masters Picture Gallery, Inv. No. 1955
Karlsruhe, art gallery , inv. No. 121 47 × 32.5 cm, oak wood Ficker 293, Stuhlfauth 14, Dieck 11 Head tilted half right. The whole upper body is visible without hands. The shirt sleeves are not sewn in, the ruff has a ribbon, the shirt is closed. Above the head there is an inscription with the dates of life.

According to Stuhlfauth, images based on the model of the Karlsruhe version, on which Luther's hands are not depicted, are not considered as archetypes for further copies on which Luther's hands can be seen, because the original image must have shown all of Luther's arms that were open so many copies recur. Stuhlfauth assumes that the Karlsruhe picture, which takes some liberties, could not have been created before 1580; dendrochronological investigations have meanwhile shown that he was right with this or that the picture must be significantly younger. As a result, the tablet has not been ascribed to the Cranach workshop since then, but to an unknown successor.

The picture comes from the collection of the Heidelberg Mayor Ch. F. Winter, was in the private collection of Grand Duke Leopold von Baden from 1842 and came with this to the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe in 1853.

Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Inv. No. 121
Voronezh , I. Kramskoi Regional Art Museum Ficker -, Stuhlfauth -, Dieck - Head tilted half right. The whole upper body is visible without hands. The shirt sleeves are not sewn in, the ruff has a ribbon, the shirt is closed. Above the head there is an inscription with the dates of life.
Luckenwalde, former Huebner Collection Ficker 295, Stuhlfauth -, Dieck 13 Head tilted half right. The whole upper body is visible without hands. The shirt sleeves are not sewn in, the ruff has a ribbon, the shirt is closed. No caption.
Weimar, State Library 43.5 × 34.5 cm, canvas Ficker 294, Stuhlfauth 15, Dieck 12 Head tilted half right. The whole upper body is visible without hands. The shirt sleeves are not sewn in, the ruff has a ribbon, the shirt is closed.

This copy from the early 19th century was made by Ferdinand Jagemann († 1820) and was probably painted after the picture that was still in Heidelberg shortly after 1800 and is now in Karlsruhe.

Berlin, formerly Berlin Palace, GK I 648 17 × 49 cm (entire sequence of images with three other motifs), wood Ficker 296, Stuhlfauth -, Dieck 14 Head tilted half right. The whole upper body and both hands are visible, with the left hand lying over the right hand. The body continues a part below the hands, the lower end is a parapet. The shirt sleeves are sewn in, the ruff and the sleeves have dark ribbons, the shirt is closed.

The painting was part of a series of images with Martin Luther in four characters and is one of the losses of the Second World War .

Different variants of the motif are to be found in the art trade. Partly be identical to the aforementioned, whose provenance and current storage locations are not always known, or are related to the origins of these. A relatively large (63 by 47 centimeters) copy that was sold at Dobiaschofsky in Bern in 2012 shows a similar lettering (without a poem of praise) as the copy that was once in the Dreher Collection. In addition to the paintings, there are a large number of print-widespread versions of the motif.

Background: Reports of Luther's death

Martin Luther died on February 18, 1546 in Eisleben . His friend and co-reformer Justus Jonas was present, and a little later, together with Michael Coelius, he published an eyewitness account of Luther's death. This report also shows how the first portraits of the dead Luther came about: “At Eisleben / before these church ceremonies all needed two painters, that is, the dead face was removed / one of Eisleben / while he was still lying on the bed in the parlor / The other / master Lucas Fortennagel von Hall / since he was already one night in Sarck. "

Nothing is known about the first of the two painters mentioned. His drawing seems lost. A portrait of Luther in a coffin, which is attributed to Furtenagel, is now in the Kupferstichkabinett of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin under the inventory number KdZ 4545 .

In the more recent specialist literature, this drawing is mostly identified as the template for the numerous drawings and paintings from the environment of the Cranach workshop, which show the dead Luther.

The house where Luther died

Various sources report in detail about Luther's death and the events leading up to his burial. The following compilation of the events is based on sources which in turn go back to Jonas 'and Coelius' report.

In January 1546, Luther went to his native Eisleben to settle disputes between the Counts of Mansfeld , where he was quartered in the house of the Drachstedt family. On February 17, 1546, he did not feel well and in the evening was stricken with chest pains, whereupon his friend and co-reformer Justus Jonas and Michael Coelius, who was also present, rubbed him with warm towels. Count Albrecht von Mansfeld , who had also come, had his doctor give him a portion of unicorn in a spoonful of wine at around nine o'clock in the evening . Luther was then able to sleep for a short time, but later got up again and went to his room, where he said goodbye to the bystanders and fell asleep again in his bed.

On February 18, he woke up at one in the morning and let the heat go. He complained again of pain and expressed the opinion that he would die in Eisleben. He then switched back to the rugebettlin (leather sofa) in his room and again let himself be warmed by all kinds of means. The two doctors in town were called to see him. The count and his wife also came back to the house where they died. Despite the use of other tonics and resuscitation aids, Luther was hardly responsive and only gave short, monosyllabic answers to questions. His last utterance is said to have been the answer "yes" to the question of whether he would die forever with his teaching and Christ. Lying on his right side, he fell asleep and died around 2:45 a.m. Around 3 a.m., the Eisleben pharmacist Johann Landau was called because the doctors were of the opinion that Luther was still alive and that the pharmacist could help him with an enema. When Luther was turned aside for the enema, the pharmacist noticed that Luther was dead. They tried to insert an enema , but the body did not keep it. The doctors were now certain that Luther was dead. Luther was then transferred from the rugebettlin to an improvised bed made of feather beds next to it at around 3:30 a.m. Luther's friends tried to resuscitate the dead with starch water. The pharmacist also made further attempts at resuscitation. But none of the measures showed any effect. Around 4 a.m., the reformer's death was certain and those present began to prepare for the preparation of the corpse for burial and for the announcement of Luther's death.

Between 4 and 5 a.m., two reports of the death of the reformer were written. Justus Jonas dictated the longer report. At the same time a coffin was ordered and the painter Lukas Furtenagel from Halle was ordered by express courier to portray the deceased. Luther's body was placed back from the makeshift feather bed on the leather sofa, washed, and dressed in a temporary white shirt. The news of Luther's death had meanwhile been spread and numerous people gathered in the house where he died. Luther's corpse remained on the leather sofa until nine in the morning, then it was dressed in a new white smock and placed in the room on a bed, the base of which was made of straw. The painter Furtenagel and the pewter coffin must have arrived around noon.

Luther lying in the coffin was portrayed by Furtenagel on the morning of February 19. The work took a long time, as the memorial service scheduled for 12 noon was postponed to 3 p.m. In the early afternoon the coffin was soldered and transferred to the church of St. Andrew, where Justus Jonas gave the funeral sermon. At this point at the latest, it was no longer possible to make a portrait. The coffin remained in the church the following night, guarded by ten citizens. After the elector Johann Friedrich learned of Luther's death, he ordered the transfer of the body to Wittenberg. As a result, another funeral sermon was held for Luther in Eisleben on the morning of February 20, this time by Coelius. Luther's body was taken away from Eisleben around noon, and around five o'clock in the afternoon it arrived in Halle, where it stayed overnight. On February 21st she was brought to Kemberg and on February 22nd she arrived in Wittenberg.

In their eyewitness report, as already mentioned, Justus Jonas and Michael Coelius describe how the first portraits of the dead Luther came about: First, a local painter portrayed Luther before he was put in the coffin, after the coffin there was Furtenagel Portrait created.

The pharmacist Johann Landau from Eisleben, on the other hand, does not mention the painter from Eisleben at all in a letter he wrote to his cousin Georg Wizel in Regensburg before June 9, 1546 , but claims that Furtenagel, whom he only calls a “pictor Hallensis ”, but not named, painted two pictures of the deceased. In the first version he painted Luther, who at that time was still in the house where he died, “ut erat” (“as he was”). The next day, however, he had received the order to “adhuc semel et melius quidem quam antea corpus mortui depingere” (“to paint the corpse / body of the dead one more time and better than before”). However, doubts have been expressed about the reliability of this source, which has not survived in the original but only in a Latin translation. According to Jochen Birkenmeier, for example, “the source - if it is genuine at all - has a problematic history and has (probably several times) been dealt with polemically , among other things. a. of Luther's intimate enemy Johannes Cochläus ; secondly, the source does not know (or name) the Eisleber painter who made the first portrait of the dead ”. He concludes from this that either Landau was mistaken or a polemical intention: the - Catholic - pharmacist or someone who edited the letter wanted to suggest that Luther's body looked terrifying or unworthy and that it took a long time to cover up this .

From these sources it is unclear whether there were two or three portraits of Luther's dead drawn from nature and which of these portraits by which painter was the model for the numerous paintings known today.

The Furtenagel drawing in Berlin

Furtenagel's drawing

The portrait sketch of the dead reformer in the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett is commonly attributed to Lukas Furtenagel. Georg Stuhlfauth provided a detailed description of the drawing in his work The Portraits of D. Martin Luther on the Death Bed , published in 1927. According to this description, Furtenagel’s portrait of Luther is a white brush drawing. Luther's head is seen from the left side, sharp contours are found on the very clearly drawn border line on the left, while they are not present on the right side of the drawing. The draftsman has masterfully understood how to “bring the connection of the sharply delimited with the flowing soft and fat in this face to a speaking expression.” Stuhlfauth cites the strong lower chin and the small blunt nose as special characteristics, and he also notes that the left one Eye is noticeably swollen and there is a furrow downward from the mouth.

According to Stuhlfauth's description, Luther's portrait was drawn on a square, not entirely symmetrical sheet of paper. This is 28.1 centimeters high on the left and two millimeters higher on the right. The width is 21.8 centimeters at the top and 22 centimeters at the bottom. The actual drawing is framed by border lines drawn with a ruler and pen, which run about one centimeter from the edge of the sheet. At the bottom, the sheet that bears the drawing is extended by about three centimeters by a fragment that is glued to the back of the main sheet. The pieced-up paper is thinner and more elastic than that of the main sheet, but like this one of good quality. Apparently, the fragmentation was intended to repair damage to the lower part of the original sheet or to prevent further tearing. Stuhlfauth assumes that the perimeter line was drawn as part of this repair attempt. The sheet with the drawing of Furtenagel is provided with a watermark depicting a crowned eagle bearing the letter F on a breast shield. It comes from Augsburg production; comparable paper was used from the time of Luther's death until the 1580s.

Stuhlfauth also counted five inscriptions on the work of art, which he only assigned to three different hands. For Lucas Cranach d. Ä. standing ligated monogram LC in the upper left corner of the picture, whose authenticity is already refuted by its anachronistic shape. Because as early as 1509, Cranach signed with a snake signet that had lowered wings from 1537, while the sign that was affixed to the Furtenagel drawing was only used in the years 1504 to 1506. From the same hand that carried out this inept forgery of a signature, there is also a note on the upper edge of the back of the picture, according to which Luther died in 1556 (!) And was then painted by "Lucas Cronach". Stuhlfauth dates these additions to the Furtenagel drawing to around 1600 or shortly thereafter. They are important because it proves that the sheet was probably still in the German-speaking area around 1600 and that at the turn of the 16th to the 17th century, the tradition for the creation of the portrait was apparently no longer generally known.

A collector's stamp in the lower left corner proves that the Luther portrait later passed into the possession of the Dutch collector Zoomer, also known as Knorrepot, who died in 1724. Next to Zoomer's collector's stamp on the piece of paper there is the note “Ils Raars. Keer om. ”(“ Something rare. Turn around. ”) Another owner's note,“ J Th ”, refers to the London art dealer John Thane. He lived from 1748 to 1818. After his death, his collection was auctioned. The catalog compiled by George Jones for the auction on March 25th and 26th, 1819 contains as No. 63 an object which is described as follows: “Cranach (Lucas), Mask of Martin Luther taken on his Death Bed, curious 1. “Stuhlfauth thinks it is certain that Furtenagel’s Luther portrait was meant. The auction item became the property of Robert Stayner Holfort in London, who died in 1892. In 1911 Max J. Friedländer brought the Furtenagel drawing, which he had received as a gift in England, to Berlin. It then came from Friedländer's hands to the Kupferstichkabinett.

Cranach and the copies

As mentioned above, numerous paintings are known from the Renaissance period that show the dead Luther. Alfred Dieck names a total of 14 paintings, Johannes Ficker lists a few other portraits of Luther's dead and additional variants are known from art dealers and museums. Because of the long production practice of a painting, none of the paintings on Luther's deathbed or coffin was probably created, but must go back to one or more of the sketches that were possible in the short time between Luther's laying out and the closing of the coffin in the presence of numerous mourners. At least two of the surviving paintings show the artist's signature from the Cranach workshop. Cranach the Elder Ä. was a close friend of Luther and often portrayed him during his lifetime.

Due to the matching of motifs and perspectives, the Furtenagel drawing in Berlin can be used as a template for the paintings. According to the letter from the pharmacist Landau, Furtenagel portrayed Luther twice in his death: once on the day of his death, the next day he painted the corpus again better than before. However, the Latin word "corpus" in the letter does not seem to match the traditional drawing, as it only shows the head of the deceased reformer, while many of the surviving paintings from the Cranach area of ​​Luther are superimposed over the chest and stomach Hands pose. In all of these pictures he wears the white death shirt - with some differences in detail - and in most of them he is bedded on a white pillow. The paintings do not tell whether he is lying on a bed or already in the coffin; However, they show this arrangement in a uniform manner and in contrast to the portrait drawing by Furtenagel, which has been preserved in Berlin and does not have a background design.

The question arises as to how the transition from the pure portrait drawing of Furtenagel to the uniformly designed half-body figure of the dead Luther came about in the later pictures. If Furtenagel himself had also designed a picture in which the “corpus” of the deceased could be seen, it would make sense to regard this as the source of the other paintings. For the Cranach workshop, however, it has also been proven that portrait paintings were often made from brush sketches that only captured the facial features in detail, while clothes and hands were ideally supplemented. An example of this is the sketch by Luther's father Hans in the Albertina in Vienna, which forms the basis for a larger painting on the Wartburg. However, it has not yet been proven that this working practice applies to all Cranach paintings and thus also to the portraits of the Luther dead.

There is also disagreement about the interdependence of the paintings, which were certainly not all copied from a common template, but also from one another. The paintings from the Cranach workshop could e.g. B. can also be only indirect copies of a sketch and go back to a lost original painting.


Stuhlfauth asks himself the question: “Where did the result of Furtenagel's artistic work on Luther's coffin go?” He combines this with a second question, namely that of the traces of the picture by the unknown painter from Eisleben. Even if the drawing of the unknown has not been preserved, a painting based on this drawing could still exist. He rejects this assumption for the group of the four large paintings known to him, all about 63 cm high and probably consisting of an original - the Leipzig picture - and three copies of it.

Stuhlfauth divided the existing paintings into bed and coffin pictures. According to his theory, the majority of the portraits show the dead Luther lying outside the coffin on the death bed on which, according to reports, numerous citizens of Eisenach visited him the morning after his death. According to Stuhlfauth, these pictures include the paintings on which Luther's head rests on a light cushion, a copper engraving from around 1580 and other engravings and etchings, e.g. T. represent reproductions of the Karlsruhe picture. Stuhlfauth counts the smaller Leipzig painting with the dark background under Luther's head as well as numerous cuts and engravings, which are often labeled according to the medium, as well as a medal among the coffin pictures. However, he finally relativizes his division into bed and coffin pictures himself: "We have, if you take it literally, no picture of" Luther in the coffin "[...]" The only difference between the two groups of pictures is that in the larger group Luther was depicted on a pillow-like surface, while this background or any background at all is missing in the other group. More recent studies have also shown a (dark overpainted) light background for the smaller Leipzig picture, so that Stuhlfauth's distinction is now considered refuted.

Henrike Holsing nonetheless gives a lecture in her dissertation Luther - Gottesmann und Nationalheld, among other things, Stuhlfauth's theory that the "bed pictures" go back to the unknown painter, the "coffin pictures" but to Furtenagel, and that the smaller Leipzig painting is a copy of the second, not preserved Furtenagel -Drawing is, like Alfred Dieck's theory, that the traditional Furtenagel picture could not be the model of the known paintings because they showed a death shirt with a ruff, which is why the paintings must go back to the model of the unknown painter from Eisleben, and is coming to concluded that both theories are not tenable, namely “due to the simple fact that on closer inspection no serious differences in the conception can be discerned, neither when comparing the drawing with the paintings nor the paintings with each other: all paintings […] come together and the same model back […] “But this model is the symbol preserved in Berlin Furtenagels, because: “If you compare this drawing with the oil painting in Hanover […], it is noticeable that the given head section is reproduced exactly the same in detail and view, so that it is unlikely that two painters working independently of each other are at work here were, especially since Luther is said to have been reburied between the two portraits, so his position was changed [...] "

Holsing reconstructs the event as follows: The unknown painter portrayed Luther in the early morning of February 18, 1546; however, the image was not preserved and was not copied. Furtenagel, alerted by a courier, came to Eisleben and created the drawing that is now in Berlin. This drawing was soon brought to the Cranach workshop and used as a template for the “official” portrait of the dead. If Furtenagel actually created a second portrait of Luther on February 20, it is, in Holsing's opinion, the death mask and the hand casts of Luther.

Lucas Cranach the Elder J .: Philipp Melanchthon on the death bed

The differences between the Furtenagel drawing and the oil painting in Hanover can be easily explained, according to Holsing: "The addition of the upper body with a shroud and lace and the pillow [...] can be trusted by Cranach - one of the most experienced German painters of the 16th century. also some small but significant differences in Luther's physiognomy [...] These are all changes in the detail, not in the basic structure of the face: the drawing served Cranach as a model; he, the much more renowned painter, was not dependent on a slavish copy of Furtenagel, especially since, as a lifelong portraitist, he knew Luther's physiognomy better than anyone. ”The difference in quality between Furtenagel’s drawing and the painting in Hanover or what Cranach made of Having made the model, it is that the drawing appears rather smooth and lifeless, whereas Cranach's Luther appears as if he were sleeping - which also met the image's intention to emphasize the gentle end of the reformer.

In the style of Luther portraits of the dead, from 1560, portraits of the dead by Philipp Melanchthon , with whom Luther often formed a pair of portraits on panels in the Cranach workshop from around 1532, also appeared. The portrait of the dead Melanchthon was on his deathbed by Cranach the Elder. J. manufactured.

Iconographic meaning

Justification by peaceful death

The pictures of the dead reformer Martin Luther were intended to provide evidence that Luther had died peacefully and that he did not go through an agonizing agony - which is obligatory for a sinner and heretic - so that with his own death he still provided a divine justification for his reformatory work.

Erotic component

In addition, the erotic component of the representations is often pointed out. In most of the depictions Luther looks much younger and stronger in death than in the old age portraits that showed him while he was still alive. In death, Luther appears rejuvenated by several decades, his gray hair is depicted significantly darker again, the face, already slack in the portraits of old age, appears fleshier, and the dead man's lips seem to curve coquettishly in the direction of a kissable mouth. With such variants as in Hanover, there also seems to be no doubt that Luther's loin strength would be sufficient in death to produce generations of offspring. A vitality is played here symbolically, which, unlike other seductive portraits of the dead, does not want to create an area of ​​tension between "Eros and Thanatos ", but which immanently and vividly anticipates the great echo of Luther's work and the broad family tree of the Lutherids with an all-potent ancestor .

The dead Luther in printed representations

The Luther portrait was not only disseminated through drawings and paintings, but also in print. In his book The Holy City of Wittenberg, Martin Schwarz Lausten depicts a reversed copper engraving from the 17th century and claims that the picture provides “the starting point for the later legend of the excessively fat Luther”. But this impression would be deceiving. In fact, the first signs of disintegration of the corpse were recorded in the picture, which, according to contemporaries, began to decompose unusually quickly. In a summary of the events that was unfriendly to Luther, which appeared in 1728, one can read: “As soon as Luther closed his eyes / his body / which started to stink horribly / was placed in a coffin / and the 20th ditto accompanied by many thousand ravens / which besides the Lutherans everywhere, a pathetic shouting seduced / led to Wittenberg [...] "

Martin Treu also addresses the question “fat or decomposition?” Or the role that Luther's portraits of the dead played in the ideas of later generations about Luther's physical constitution . With reference to the Furtenagel drawing, he first stated: "The picture plays an important role in the later tradition of the Luther portraits insofar as it is the" ancestor "of those depictions that depict Luther as particularly thick." But Treu also goes away from the fact that the portraitist held the corpse in an already recognizable state of dissolution, and also points out that the rumor of Luther's extreme corpulence is probably due to a misunderstanding: A statement by a contemporary from around 1530 that Luther was "from quite fat ”, should not be read with the current understanding of the word“ fairly ”.

The Guldenmundt print

Guldenmundt's print

A woodcut by Hans Guldenmundt from Nuremberg is probably one of the earliest printed portraits of Luther on his death bed and was probably published as a souvenir or flyer . A print can be found in the graphic collection of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg under inventory no. P 819, capsule no. 830a. The paper that Guldenmundt printed on measures around 30.8 by 21.5 centimeters. The print bears the centered heading “The venerable Doctoris Martini / Lutheri Christian says goodbye to this world, divided into three lines . / Anno MD rlvj ”and at the bottom the also centered two-line statement“ Printed to Hans Guldenmundt / wonhracht bey den Fleyschbencken. ” In between there is a praise poem and prayer in pair rhymes. This text is set in three columns; the one on the left extends over the entire height of the sheet between the heading and the statement of responsibility. The two columns of text on the right are below the image of Martin Luther, which is located in the upper right corner and is two columns wide. Luther is shown with his eyes closed, hands lying on his chest or stomach and dressed in a shirt-like robe. As is the case with the Hanoverian and Berlin paintings, this piece of clothing has sewn-in sleeves instead of knitted-in sleeves.

The template, which roughly corresponds to the type of painting with a shroud and visible arms and hands, was apparently transferred directly to the printing block, so that the printed representation of Luther is mirror-inverted compared to the painted and drawn pictures of the dead Reformer. It shares this characteristic with a medal of unknown origin, which was depicted in Chr. Juncker's Vita Martini Lutheri from 1699.

Stuhlfauth traced the woodcut, which shows Luther in front of an empty background, to the smaller Leipzig painting, which to him seemed singular, as he did not yet know anything about its overpainted background. Although there are certain similarities in the treatment of Luther's body to the Leipzig depiction, Schuchardt points out clear differences in the narrower shape of the head, in the shorter hair, in the area of ​​the shoulders and the base of the sleeves, and in general in the choice of image detail.

The goods Contrafactur Ammans

Jost Ammans Ware Contrafactur Mr. Doctoris Martini Lutheri

In contrast to the other depictions of the dead Luther printed in the 16th century, which preserve the portrait character of the Cranach-type pictures, an etching shows the dead Luther in full length: the goods Contrafactur Mr. Doctoris Martini Lutheri, like him in his, probably come from Jost Amman Death's smock on […] This etching shows Luther in the traditional form with the wrinkled death robe and the hands resting on his body - although the left one is almost entirely covered by the right forearm - but, as an exception, does not cut off below these hands and forearms , but presents the whole body of the dead man, who is lying on a kind of mattress and has two thick pillows under his head. The surrounding ambience is also shown. However, this depiction of the deceased cannot be one of the earliest versions of the theme "Luther on his deathbed", provided that the assignment to Amman is correct, as Amman was born only a few years before Luther's death. The print is only dated to around 1585.


Further depictions of Luther on his death bed

William Pape, Luther's Last Confession (1905)

The dying or dead Luther was also the subject of other pictures, which, however, have little to do with the portrait of Furtenagel and related portraits: For example, another picture with the title Luther on the deathbed was painted by Alexander Théodore Honoré Struys in 1880 and shows the dying or dead Luther lying in bed surrounded by several people. The dying scene that William Pape painted in 1905 is comparable . It is known under the title of Luther's Last Confession . The representation of the death room is based on the furnishings that Friedrich Wanderer created in the historicist style at the end of the 19th century ; The so-called Luther beaker, a humped glass that is still exhibited in the Lutherster's house in Eisleben, can also be recognized in this painting.

literature

  • Georg Stuhlfauth: The portraits of D. Martin Luther in death , Weimar 1927 ( digitized version )
  • Johannes Ficker: The portraits of Luther from the time of his life , in: Luther-Jahrbuch XVI, Munich 1934 (therein especially p. 140-142).
  • Alfred Dieck: Cranach's painting of the dead Luther in Hanover and the problem of Luther pictures of the dead , in: Low German Contributions to Art History II , 1962, pp. 191–218.
  • Günter Schuchardt: Cranach, Luther and the portraits , cat. Exh. Wartburg, Eisenach 2015 (therein especially No. 58–60).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Harald Meller (ed.), Luther lost property. Archaeologists in the footsteps of the reformer (= companion volume to the state exhibition Fundsache Luther - Archaeologists in the footsteps of the reformer in the State Museum for Prehistory Halle (Saale) from October 31, 2008 to April 26, 2009), Stuttgart (Theiss) undated, ISBN 978-3-8062-2201-2 , p. 306 f.
  2. ^ Michael Wolfson: Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum Hannover, Landesgalerie, The German and Dutch paintings until 1550 , Hannover 1992, pp. 63–65, No. 14.
  3. ↑ Schuster-Woldan's painting could therefore be identical to the picture in the DHM today, cf. the pictures.
  4. ↑ Stuhlfauth, p. 44 ff. ( Digitized version )
  5. ↑ Martin Warnke: Cranachs Luther, drafts for an image , Frankfurt a. M. 1984, ISBN 978-3-596-23904-7 , p. 59.
  6. ^ Lower Saxony State Museum Hanover: List of the paintings exhibited in the Lower Saxony State Gallery Hanover , Hanover 1989, No. 37.
  7. ↑ Johannes Ficker, The portraits of Luther from the time of his life , in: Luther-Jahrbuch XVI , Munich 1934, p. 140
  8. ↑ Martin Luther on his deathbed is still attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder on www.dhm.de.
  9. ↑ Julius Leopold Pasig: Dr. Martin Luther's last days of life, death and funeral. A memorandum for the third century commemoration of the anniversary of Luther's death. Edited from the sources . Leipzig 1846, p. 54.
  10. ↑ Cornelius Gurlitt : Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony, 17./18. Issue: City of Leipzig , Dresden 1895/96, p. 260.
  11. ↑ Stuhlfauth 1927, No. 10, Plate VI.
  12. ↑ Stuhlfauth, p. 17 f. ( Digitized version )
  13. ↑ service.uni-leipzig.de ( Memento of the original from December 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / service.uni-leipzig.de
  14. ↑ Stuhlfauth's reasoning, also related to the larger Leipzig painting, is that the reformer is depicted here lying on the bed, but Furtenagel only saw the deceased lying in the coffin and as a result could not paint him lying in bed. See Stuhlfauth p. 18 ( digitized version ) In view of the fact that the background of the pictures is in the extreme case a pillow that cannot be seen whether it is on a bed or in a coffin, and in view of the fact that a painter also Having seen a person lying in a coffin, but still having depicted him lying on a bed, this justification does not seem very valid, as does Stuhlfauth's theory that there are coffin and bed images of the dead Luther. His reasoning is more sound with the not exactly outstanding quality of the smaller Leipzig picture, which therefore could not possibly have come from such a virtuoso artist as Furtenagel. See Stuhlfauth p. 21 ff. ( [1] )
  15. ↑ Stuhlfauth, p. 52 ff. ( Digitized version )
  16. ↑ Provenance information from Ficker 1934 questionable, as it was mixed up with the table in Karlsruhe.
  17. ↑ Hugo Helbing (ed.), Paintings by old masters, sculptures as well as some drawings and engravings from the property of Mr. Stallforth Wiesbaden and from other mostly southern German private property: Auction in Munich: Wednesday, October 1, 1919 , Munich 1919, lot 21 ( Digitized )
  18. ^ Inventory Moritzburg 1722–1728, No. B 1574.
  19. ^ Julius Huebner: Directory of the Royal Painting Gallery in Dresden. With a historical introduction, notes about the acquisition and details of the names of the individual images. Second significantly increased edition , Dresden 1862, p. 382, ​​no. 1783.
  20. ^ Karl Woermann: Catalog of the royal picture gallery in Dresden, large edition , Dresden 1887, p. 620, no. 1955.
  21. ↑ Harald Marx and Ingrid Mössinger (eds.): Cranach, catalog for the exhibition in Chemnitz. With an inventory catalog of the paintings in the Dresden State Art Collections. by Karin Kolb . Cologne 2005, ISBN 978-3-87909-876-7 , no.43.
  22. ↑ Stuhlfauth, p. 43 ( digitized version )
  23. ^ Rainer Stamm (ed.): Lucas Cranach the fastest , exhibition Bremen, 2009, ISBN 978-3-939429-66-1 , p. 21.
  24. ^ Jan Lauts: Catalog Old Masters , Karlsruhe 1966, p. 94.
  25. ↑ Stuhlfauth 1927, fig. 15, plate IX.
  26. ^ Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation (ed.): Destroyed, kidnapped, lost. The losses of the Prussian castles in World War II, painting I , Potsdam 2004, p. 130.
  27. ↑ "Luther, Bora, Melanchthon" on cranach.net ( Memento of the original from December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / cranach.ub.uni-heidelberg.de
  28. ^ For example, Albrecht Beutel, Michael Beyer, Luther Society: Luther Yearbook 78th year 2011: Organ of international Luther research . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, January 18, 2012, ISBN 978-3-525-87443-1 , p. 197 ; other, v. a. earlier authors assume two or even three models for the portraits of the dead Luther. See the following sections of the article.
  29. ↑ For many years a building on Andreaskirchplath was considered to be Martin Luther's house where he died . In the meantime, however, this view has become obsolete and the Markt 56 building in Eisleben, once the city palace of the Counts of Mansfeld, has been identified as the house where Luther died. See e.g. B. Andreas Stahl, New Findings on Martin Luther's Biography , in: Harald Meller (ed.), Fundsache Luther. Archaeologists in the footsteps of the reformer (= companion volume to the state exhibition Fundsache Luther - Archaeologists in the footsteps of the reformer in the State Museum for Prehistory Halle (Saale) from October 31, 2008 to April 26, 2009), Stuttgart (Theiss) undated, ISBN 978-3-8062-2201-2 , pp. 86-93.
  30. ↑ a b cf. AFC MENGERT: Dr. M. Luther's death and funeral in the days from Feb. 18 to Feb. 22, 1546. Briefly described for three-hundred-year memory, etc 1846.
  31. ↑ Events according to Dieck 1962, pp. 191–195.
  32. ↑ No special form of clothing, but a shirt made of particularly fine Swabian fabric. Dieck 1962, note 22.
  33. ↑ Events according to Dieck 1962, pp. 191–195.
  34. ↑ Georg Stuhlfauth, The portraits of D. Martin Luther im Tode , Weimar 1927 (= research on the history of art on the history of the Reformation), p. 9 ( digitized version )
  35. ↑ The text of the Schubart letter is quoted in Stuhlfauth on p. 12, note 3. ( Digitized version )
  36. ↑ Jochen Birkenmeier, Luther's death mask? , in: Lutherjahrbuch 78 , 2012, ISBN 978-3-525-87443-1 , pp. 187–203, here p. 193
  37. ↑ Stuhlfauth 1927, p. 7 ( digitized version )
  38. ↑ Dieck 1962, p. 200/201.
  39. ↑ Johannes Ficker, The portraits of Luther from the time of his life , in: Luther-Jahrbuch XVI , Munich 1934, pp. 140–142.
  40. ↑ Schuchardt 2015, pas.
  41. ^ Michael Hofbauer: Cranach - The drawings , Berlin 2010, pas.
  42. ^ Vienna, Albertina, inv. No. 26156, cf. Michael Hofbauer: Cranach - The Drawings , Berlin 2010, pp. 272/273, no. 125.
  43. ↑ Max J. Friedländer and Jakob Rosenberg : The paintings of Lucas Cranach , Basel and Stuttgart 1979, No. 316.
  44. ↑ Schuchart 2015, p. 132.
  45. ↑ Jochen Birkenmeier, Luther's death mask? , in: Albrecht Beutel, Michael Beyer, Luther Society: Luther Yearbook 78th year 2011: Organ of international Luther research . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, January 18, 2012, ISBN 978-3-525-87443-1 , p. 197.
  46. ↑ Stuhlfauth, p. 39 ( digitized version )
  47. ↑ Stuhlfauth, p. 42 ( digitized version )
  48. ↑ Stuhlfauth, p. 40 ( digitized version )
  49. ↑ Schuchardt 2015, p. 131.
  50. ↑ Henrike Holsing, Luther - God's man and national hero. His Image in the German History Painting of the 19th Century , Diss. Cologne 2004 (in the following cited as “Holsing 2004”, the text is available in digital form ), p. 34
  51. ↑ Holsing 2004, p. 34 f.
  52. ↑ Holsing 2004, p. 35
  53. ↑ Holsing 2004, p. 36
  54. ^ Annegrete Janda-Bux: Catalog of the art possessions of the University of Leipzig with special consideration of the portraits of scholars , scientific journal of the Karl Marx University of Leipzig. Social and Linguistic Series, 4, 1/2, 1954–1955, No. 184.
  55. ↑ Karin Kolb: Cranach as a Reformation painter? Observations on Cranach paintings in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden . In: Dresdner Hefte 21 (2003) 73, pp. 73–75.
  56. ↑ Harald Marx, Eckhard Kluth, Cecilie Hollberg (ed.): Faith & Power. Saxony in Europe during the Reformation. 2nd Saxon State Exhibition, Torgau, Hartenfels Castle . Dresden 2004, No. 256.
  57. ↑ Henrike Holsing: Das Totenbildnis - A special form of the portrait , in: Culture of death. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Sepulchral Culture , ed. by Reiner Sörries, Kassel 2007, pp. 34–52, on the eroticism of portraits of the dead, especially pp. 41–44.
  58. ↑ Catalog "Lucas Cranach the Younger, Discovery of a Master". Munich 2015. P. 244/245, catalog no. 2/13.
  59. ↑ Martin Schwarz Lausten: The holy city of Wittenberg: the relationship between the Danish royal family and Wittenberg during the Reformation . Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2010, ISBN 978-3-374-02723-1 , p. 138.
  60. ↑ Johann Nikolaus Weis Linger : Friss Vogel, or die ... par Jean Nicolas Weis Linger ... . Philippe Martin, 1728, p. 85.
  61. ↑ a b Martin Treu , Luther Pictures , in: Harald Meller (ed.), Fundsache Luther. Archaeologists in the footsteps of the reformer (= companion volume to the state exhibition Fundsache Luther - Archaeologists in the footsteps of the reformer in the State Museum for Prehistory Halle (Saale) from October 31, 2008 to April 26, 2009), Stuttgart (Theiss) undated, ISBN 978-3-8062-2201-2 , pp. 94-99, here p. 98
  62. ↑ Portrait of Martin Luther , Hans Guldenmundt, on: www.portraitindex.de
  63. ↑ Stuhlfauth reproduces this table in his work from 1927 on panel XVI under no. ( Digitized version )
  64. ↑ Schuchardt 2015, p. 134, no. 61.
  65. ↑ See Stuhlfauth 1927, plate X, no.17 ( digitized version )
  66. ↑ Struys' Luther on the death bed  in the German Digital Library
  67. ↑ Harald Meller (ed.), Luther lost property. Archaeologists in the footsteps of the reformer (= companion volume to the state exhibition Fundsache Luther - Archaeologists in the footsteps of the reformer in the State Museum for Prehistory Halle (Saale) from October 31, 2008 to April 26, 2009), Stuttgart (Theiss) undated, ISBN 978-3-8062-2201-2 , p. 105