Art and the Artist in the Lutheran Reformation: Johannes Mathesius and Joachimsthal

Abstract

Luther's student Johann Mathesius, longtime pastor in the Bohemian mining town of Joachimsthal, provides a lens for seeing early modern art and artists through Lutheran eyes, challenging modern interpretations of the dire consequences of the Reformation for the visual arts.1For Mathesius, pre-Reformation art provided not only evidence of old idolatry but also testimony to the preservation of Evangelical faith under the papacy. After the Reformation, Joachimsthal's Lutherans were active in commissioning new works of art to fill the first newly built Protestant church, including an altarpiece from Lucas Cranach's workshop. Mathesius's appreciation of this art includes not only its biblical and doctrinal content but also its aesthetic quality. In an extended sermon on the construction of the Tabernacle in Exodus 31, Mathesius draws on Luther's theology of the special inspiration of the “great men” of world history to develop a Lutheran theology of artistic inspiration, in which artists are endowed by the Holy Spirit with extraordinary skills and special creative gifts, intended to be used in service of the neighbor by adorning the divinely appointed estates of government, church, and household.