Portrait of Martin Luther

Lucas Cranach worked for 49 years in Wittenburg where he was at the centre of the Protestant movement and where he enjoyed a close friendship with Martin Luther. He painted this closely observed portrait in 1525, the year of Luther's marriage to Katharina von Bora. It is one of a series of similar portraits which date from 1525 or 1526, and some of these are accompanied by a pendant portrait of Katharina.Cranach's portraits of Luther dating from a slightly later period, 1528 to 1532, were based on new and different designs.