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79. Allegory of Law and Grace, Lucas Cranach the Elder

File:Cranach law and grace woodcut.jpg

Allegory of Law and Grace
Lucas Cranach the Elder. c. 1530 C.E.Germany.  Woodcut and letterpress

The practice of imbuing narratives, images or figures with symbolic meaning to convey moral principles and philosophical idea 

Allegory of Law and Grace

Year: 1529

Context:

  • Destruction of thousands of works of religious art

  • Iconoclasts stormed through churches

  • “How did heaven get to be so controversial?”


Form

  • Material/technique → woodcut and letterpress

  • Lucas Cranach the Elder = artist

  • Located in Germany

  • Media = oil on wood

  • Northern Renaissance

  • 72 cm by 88.5 cm


Lucas Cranach the Elder

  • Influential artists in 16th century German art

  • Printmaker and painter

    • Representative of the Northern Renaissance

  • His father, Hans Maler, was a painter and gave Cranach his first lessons

  • He adopted the name Cranach when he was 30 years old

    • Birth place = now Kronach

  • As court painter of the Elector of Saxony, the patron of Luther, he is remembered as the chief artist of the Reformation

  • Moved to Vienna in 1501

    • Full of expression and dynamic

  • Moved to Wittenberg in 1505

    • More static style

    • Met the reformed Martin Luther = portrayed in his works

  • He also sold medicine, papers, ran a wine pub, printed books

  • He was elected as mayor three times

    • A talent for politics

  • 1524–met Albrecht Durer


Lutheran Reformation

  • The Law and the Grace

    • Single most influential image of the Lutheran Reformation

  • The Reformation––initiated by Martin Luther in 1517 (attempt to reform the Catholic Church, which had been the only church in western Europe up until Luther)


The Role of Art

  • The Law and the Grace explains luther’s ideas in visual form

    • Heaven is reached through faith and god’s grace

      • Luther despised and rejected the Catholic idea that good deeds (“good works”) could play any role in salvation

  • Catholics Vs. Luther: how to get to heaven?

    • Catholics

      • Believer could take action to vouchsafe their salvation by good deed (financial donations and paying for art)

    • Luther

      • Insisted that salvation was in God’s hands and all the believer had to do was to open up and have faith

  • Anger led to rebellion and destruction of artwork that the Catholic Church was become rich on


Scene:

  • Two nude figures appear on either side of a tree that bisects the composition

    • Law (left) = dying tree

    • Gospel (right) = living tree

      • Tree is dead on the side of the Law but vibrant on the side of the Gospel

      • The altarpiece from left to right

  • Six columns of Bible citations appear at the bottom of the panel

  • Left (Law) Side

    • Scene:

      • Law and judgement symbolized by a man being forced into hell by Death (skeleton) and Satan (demon)

      • Moses delivers the Ten Commandments

        • Moses beholds these events; his white tablets standing out against the saturated orange rope and green tree

          • Highlighting the association of law, death, and damnation

        • Held by a figure that appears to be Luther himself (Cranach consistently depicted Luther in his portraits alongside biblical figures)

      • Christ sits in judgement

      • Adam and Eve partake in eating the forbidden fruit

    • Motifs (left) are meant to exemplify the idea that law alone, without gospel, can never get you to heaven

  • Right (Gospel) Side

    • Scene:

      • Grace and Gospel with Christ’s cross crushing Death and Satan

        • Blood of christ covers those near the cross

    • John the baptist directs a naked man to both Christ on the cross in front of the tomb AND to the risen Christ who appears on top of the tomb

      • Risen Christ = stands triumphant above the empty tomb, acting out the miracle of the Resurrection

    • Nude figure is not hoping to follow the law on judgement day

      • Stands passively, stripped down to his soul, submitting to God’s mercy

  • Lutheran saw the law as the side in which financial donations enriched the church and should not be a way to salvation; in the gospel side he believed through your own belief in god should be enough to bring his grace

    • Law paves the way to salvation by preparing the way for grace

God judges and God shows mercy

  • The Law and the Grace is concerned with two roles that God plays:

    • Judge (condemns human sin)

    • Show mercy (forgiveness)  

      • Granting unearned salvation to sinful believers

  • Luther's idea of law is multifaceted and complex relationship to his idea of gospel

    • Law alone will never make salvation possible, law paves the way to salvation  

  • Includes events from both the New and Old Testament

  • Concerns two aspects of the relationship between humanity and god

  • Describes events throughout the bible which reveal the dual aspect of god’s relationship to people

  • Cranach's pictorial translation of Luther’s unique understanding of salvation

    • Interprets the roles of law, good works, faith, and grace in the human relationship to God

Themes

  • Personal faith

  • Protestantism

  • Allegories

  • Christianity

Cross Cultural Connections

  • Catacomb of Priscilla

  • Arena Chapel (Lamentation)

  • Lukada (memory board)

  • Last judgement of Hu-Nefer, Book of the Dead


Pictures: