2 - The circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder, Martin Luther, and Philipp Melanchthon.

The circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder, Martin Luther, and Philipp Melanchthon. Oil on wood. Each approx. 36.5 x 25 cm. Double portrait of the two most important figures of the Wittenberg Reformation, Martin Luther (1483–1546) and Philipp Melanchthon (1497–1560). Both reformers are depicted as half-length scholars against a neutral, warm-brown background, with open books and detailed Latin inscriptions that highlight their identities and significance. The portraits follow the Cranach workshop’s characteristic combination of a representative approach to portraiture and concise physiognomic typification. In particular, the depiction of Luther with his distinctive head turned to the right, as well as Melanchthon’s ascetic, sharply defined facial features, corresponds to established Cranachian portrait types. Beginning in the 1520s, the workshop produced numerous variations and repetitions of the reformers’ portraits, many of which have survived due to high demand. These panels thus belong to the significant tradition of Cranach’s portraits of the reformers. Provenance: Marcell von Nemes, Munich, (1866–1930), one bearing a label on the reverse; Hugo Helbing, Munich, November 2, 1933, Lot 5; Private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia (probably acquired from the aforementioned, in the family’s possession ever since). Taxation: subject to differential taxation (VAT: Margin Scheme).