The Reformation of the Image

With his 95 Theses Martin Luther advanced the radical notion that all Christians could enjoy a direct personal relationship with Godshattering years of Catholic tradition and obviating the need for intermediaries like priests and saints between the individual believer and God. The text of the Bible the Word of God itself Luther argued revealed the only true path to salvationnot priestly ritual and saintly iconography. But if wordsnot iconic imagesshowed the way to salvation why didnt religious imagery during the Reformation disappear along with indulgences? The answer according to Joseph Leo Koerner lies in the paradoxical nature of Protestant religious imagery itself which is at once both iconic and iconoclastic. Koerner masterfully demonstrates this point not only with a multitude of Lutheran images many never before published but also with a close reading of a single pivotal workLucas Cranach the Elders altarpiece for the City Church in Wittenberg (Luthers parish). As Koerner shows Cranach breaking all the conventions of traditional Catholic iconography created an entirely new aesthetic for the new Protestant ethos. In the Crucifixion scene of the altarpiece for instance Christ is alone and stripped of all his usual attendantsno Virgin Mary no John the Baptist no Mary Magdalenewith nothing separating him from Luther (preaching the Word) and his parishioners. And while the Holy Spirit is nowhere to be seenrepresentation of the divine being impossibleit is nonetheless dramatically present as the force animating Christs drapery. According to Koerner it is this "iconoclash" that animates the best Reformation art. Insightful and breathtakingly original The Reformation of the Image compellingly shows how visual art became indispensable to a religious movement built on words.