Portrait of Luther

Portrait of Luther, this version painted around 1611 after Dürer's design, belongs to the tradition of posthumous portraits of the Reformation's founding figure that circulated across Protestant Europe from the 1520s onward. Dürer never met Luther personally but was deeply sympathetic to the Reformation message, and his writings express relief and admiration when he heard Luther had been captured (before realizing he was safe at Wartburg). Portraits of Luther based on Cranach's authoritative likenesses — and occasionally attributed to Dürer — spread the reformer's image as a vehicle of Protestant identity. This late version reflects the continuing cultural importance of Luther's image as the founding portrait of German Protestantism.

The painting follows Cranach's established portrait type for Luther, with solid handling of the reformer's distinctive features, though the technique reflects early Baroque rather than Renaissance practice.