Philip Melanchthon.

Heinrich Aldegrever was one of the so-called 'Little Masters', a group of German artists making small prints in the generation after Albrecht Dürer, who included Hans Baldung Grien, the Beham brothers and Georg Pencz. The close resemblance of his early work to that of Dürer led to Aldegrever being called the 'Albert of Westphalia', although his style went on to depart from his mentor's intricate line work to stress the optical effects of light and shadow. He became a Lutheran convert in 1531, but continued to depict religious themes, such as <em>The story of Adam and Eve</em>.  His ornamental engravings were used as models by artists and craftsmen well into the 17th century, while his images of virtues and vices are well represented in Te Papa's collection. 

Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560) was a leading figure of the Protestant Reformation in Germany. His importance for the Reformation lay in the fact that he systematised Martin Luther's ideas, defended them in public, and made them the basis of a religious education. These two, by complementing each other, were central to the effectiveness and credibility of the Reformation. Melanchthon was impelled by Luther to work for the cause; his own inclinations would have kept him a student. Without Luther's influence, Melanchthon would have been 'a second Erasmus', although his heart was filled with a deep religious interest in the Reformation. While Luther scattered the sparks among the people, Melanchthon by his humanistic studies won the sympathy of educated people and scholars. Besides Luther's strength of faith, Melanchthon's many-sidedness and calmness, as well as his temperance and love of peace, contributed to the success of the movement.

See also Dürer's engraving of Melanchthon (1869-0001-128). Both portraits convey the subject's cadaverous features, even if these are tactfully avoided in the relevant part of Aldegrever's Latin inscription, which translates as: 'Such was he when he was worthy of being looked at with regard to his face'. In the same year (1540), Aldegrever made a matching engraving of Martin Luther which is not yet in Te Papa's collection. The two portraits are both claimed to be based on paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder, dating from 1532; a Cranach workshop portrait of Melanchthon is in the Historisches Museum der Stadt Regensburg. 

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Aldegrever

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Melanchthon

Dr Mark Stocker    Curator, Historical International Art          December 2016