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Platemark: Prints and the Printmaking Ecosystem


Platemark is a podcast about art and ideas. Hosted by Ann Shafer and Ben Levy, formerly colleagues at the Baltimore Museum of Art, conversations focus on museums, curating, critiques, value (market/conceptual), the Western canon, and prints and printmaking.

Mar 15, 2022

In s2ep15, Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig continue talking about game-changer Martin Luther and the effects of his 95 theses against the Catholic Church, which brought about the Protestant Reformation in 1517. In this episode they talk about the biting criticism of politics in the church and the schism with the Lutherans/Protestants that is the subject of prints by Hans Holbein the younger and Lucas Cranach the elder.

Episode image: Hans Holbein the younger (German, 1497/98–1543). Martin Luther as Hercules Germanicus, 1522. Woodcut. Image: 34.5 x 22.6 cm (From Heinrich Brennwald and Johannes Stumpf, Schweizer Chronik, Ms. A 2, before p. 150). Zentralbibliothek, Zürich.


Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472–1553). Portrait of Martin Luther, 1529. Oil on wood. 73 x 54 cm. (28 ¾ x 21 ¼ in.). St. Anne’s Church, Augsburg.


Tru Ludwig, Powerpoint slide with Tiananmen Square and Martin Luther.


Tru Ludwig, Powerpoint slide with Tiananmen Square, Martin Luther, and Rosa Parks.


Hans Holbein the younger (German, 1497/98–1543). Martin Luther as Hercules Germanicus, 1522. Woodcut. Image: 34.5 x 22.6 cm (From Heinrich Brennwald and Johannes Stumpf, Schweizer Chronik, Ms. A 2, before p. 150). Zentralbibliothek, Zürich.


Hans Lützelburger (German, died Basel, before 1526) after Hans Holbein the Younger (German, 1497/98–1543). The Clergyman, from the series The Dance of Death, c. 1526, published 1538. Woodcut. Sheet: 2 1/2 x 1 15/16 in. (6.4 x 4.9 cm.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.


Hans Lützelburger (German, died Basel, before 1526) after Hans Holbein the Younger (German, 1497/98–1543). The Nun, from the series The Dance of Death, c. 1526, published 1538. Woodcut. Sheet: 2 1/2 x 1 15/16 in. (6.4 x 4.9 cm.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.


Hans Lützelburger (German, died Basel, before 1526) after Hans Holbein the Younger (German, 1497/98–1543). The Pope, from the series The Dance of Death, c. 1526, published 1538. Woodcut. Sheet: 2 1/2 x 1 15/16 in. (6.4 x 4.9 cm.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.


Hans Lützelburger (German, died Basel, before 1526) after Hans Holbein the Younger (German, 1497/98–1543). The Peasant (or Ploughman), from the series The Dance of Death, c. 1526, published 1538. Woodcut. Sheet: 2 1/2 x 1 15/16 in. (6.4 x 4.9 cm.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.


Hans Holbein the Younger (German, 1497/98–1543). The Ambassadors, 1533. Oil on wood. 207 × 209 cm. (81 ×82 ½ in.). National Gallery, London.


Hans Holbein the Younger (German, 1497/98–1543). Portrait of Henry VIII, c. 1537. Oil on wood. 28 x 20 cm. Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional, Madrid.


Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472–1553). Portrait of Martin Luther as Junker Jörg, c. 1521–22. Oil on wood. 52.5 x 35.5 cm. Klassik Stiftung, Weimar.


Hans Baldung Grien (German, 1584/85–1545) after Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472–1553). Martin Luther as an Augustinian Monk, 1521. Woodcut. Sheet: 156 x 114 mm. British Museum, London.


After Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472–1553). Pope Paul III as a Donkey, c. 1545. Unknown collection.


Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472–1553). The Old and the New Testament, c. 1528–32. Woodcut. Image: 233 x 324 mm.; Sheet: 270 x 325 mm. British Museum, London.


Lucas Cranach the Younger (German, 1515–1586). Luther: For the Reformation and Against Catholicism, 1546. Woodcut with hand coloring. 35.1 × 58.5 cm. Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin.


German, 16th century. Caricature of Martin Luther as a Wolf in Monk’s Habit, c. 1500–25. Engraving. Image: 5 7/8 x 3 3/4 in. (15 x 9.5 cm.); sheet: 5 7/8 x 3 3/4 in. (15 x 9.5 cm.). New York Public Library, New York.


Wolfgang Stecher (German, 16th century). Martin Luther as St. Jerome, 1587–97. Engraving. Sheet: 142 x 128 mm. Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg.


German, 16th century. Martin Luther and a Nun (Katharina von Bora?), c. 1535. Trick woodcuts. Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg.

Dutch 16th century broadsheet. The Pope’s True Self, 1610. Engraving. Sheet: 15 ¾ x 6 ½ in. Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg, Halle, Germany.


Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472–1553). Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, in Das Gantz New Testament, 1529. University of Glasgow Library, Special Collections.


Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472–1553). The Seven Candlesticks, in Das Gantz New Testament, 1529. University of Glasgow Library, Special Collections.


Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528). The Vision of the Seven Candlesticks, from the series The Apocalypse, 1498. Woodcut. 44.1 x 30.5 cm (17 3/8 x 12 in). Metropolitan Museum of Art.


Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472–1553). Anti-Papal caricature, the Pope-Donkey, 1523. Woodcut.


Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472–1553). Passion of Christ and the Antichrist. Wittenberg: Johann Rhau Grunenberg, 1521. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.


Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472–1553). Bible, September 1522. Wittenberg: Melchoie Lotter the Younger, 1522. Photo: Guenther Rare Books.


Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472–1553). Bible, December 1522. Wittenberg: Melchoie Lotter the Younger, 1522. Southern Methodist University Bridwell Library, Dallas.