Abstract

Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560), who became a professor of Greek in Wittenberg at the age of 21, was Martin Luther’s closest associate and a major Protestant theologian in his own right. Like many other protagonists of the Reformation, Melanchthon sat for a portrait by Lucas Cranach the Elder. It is through Cranach’s numerous portraits of Luther and his circle – as well as the countless copies thereof – that we have come to know the leading figures of the Reformation.

Philipp Melanchthon (1543)

  • Lucas the Elder Cranach

Source

Source: Lucas Cranach the Elder, Portrait of Philipp Melanchton, oil on panel, 1543. Uffizi Gallery, Florence. Online available from Wikimedia Commons, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/PhilippMelanchthon.jpg