Lucas Cranach The Elder And Image Propaganda Of Reformation

The Reformation in the 16 th century had a great impact on the production of traditional religious art.However,combining with the flourishing printing industry at that time,the moderate reformers represented by Martin Luther made full use of the image to propagandize.They set a solid foundation of the movement and greatly expanded the scope of influence.As the “official artist” of Protestantism,Cranach,who has abilities both as the court painter and the commercial painter and close relationship with Luther,fully satisfied the requirements of the Reformation movement artist.Combining with the progress of the Reformation,this article will mainly analyses the painter's strategies in image propaganda.It is mainly divided into three aspects: the Shaping of Luther,the Propaganda of protestant theology,and the Satirizing of the Pope,which correspond three typical subjects of image----"portrait of Luther","the Law and the Gospel",and “Passional Christi und Anitichristi”.This article takes these three subjects as example and compares them with traditional Christian images.Summarizing the artist's "conscious" inheritance and innovation in the Protestant images,this article grasps the new representative features of the Protestant propaganda image itself,and finally forms the image system of Protestantism.