A Painting That Preaches Christ

See Salvation

An Explanation of the Painting

Click on the images below, and above, for a closer look.

Lucas Cranach the Younger finished the painting in 1555, and even after 450 years, there is a powerful luminous warmth to it that draws you in, causing you to ponder and meditate on the image it presents. The painting still stands where it was originally placed, over the altar of the St. Peter and Paul Church in Weimar, Germany.

"The Weimar Altarpiece is a stunning achievement of Cranach the Younger. The center panel is dominated by Christ on the cross, by the risen Christ triumphing over death and the devil and by the group of people proclaiming the Gospel, with Lucas Cranach the Elder himself standing out in the foreground as the redeemed sinner. On the inner side panels, which carry the portraits of Duke John Frederick and his family in the heavy, dark splendor of realistic interior, the mellow chromatic radiance of the center panel is sumptuously heightened. In contrast with the rich, subdued colors of the side panels, the center one is as radiant as a sunny day. The most delicate parts of the painting are pervaded by light; it is omnipresent, like a theological conviction." (Schade 1980, 93).

What is the message of this painting? The heart of the Lutheran Reformation: the doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ, by grace alone, apart from any works; indeed, this is the very heart of the Christian faith itself.

This is how Martin Luther expresses it in the Smalcald Articles, one of the Lutheran Confessions contained in the Book of Concord:

“The first and chief article is this, that Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, “was put to death for our trespasses and raised again for our justification” (Rom 4:25). He alone is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). “God has laid upon him the iniquities of us all” (Isa.53:6). Moreover, “all have sinned,” and “they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, by his blood” (Rom. 3:23-25).

In the center background, Moses is shown teaching the ten commandments to the Old Testament prophets. They are standing on a circle of barren path, along with a figure representative of all human beings who are under the law’s condemnation. Man is shown here being chased into the fires of hell by death (pictured as a skeleton holding a spear) and the devil (in the form of a monster wielding a club). The prophets taught, as did Moses, “Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them” (Deut. 27:26 ESV, compare Jer. 11:13). Yet it’s not only our actual sins that condemn us, but also the prior sin that we inherit from our parents (original sin). To quote the Smalcald Articles once again,

“Here we must confess what St Paul says in Rom. 5:12, namely, that sin had its origin in one man, Adam, through whose disobedience all men were made sinners and became subject to death and the devil. … The fruits of this sin are all the subsequent evil deeds which are forbidden in the Ten Commandments …”

Bach and the Cranach Painting

I heard from a person who noticed this blog site and shared a project that he prepared: a meditation on one of Bach's Fugues and the painting, comparing the two pieces of art. If you have, and can use, Shockwave in your browser, you may enjoy taking a look at this multimedia presentation.