Die Stadt als Bild der Verheißung Minden auf dem Bildnis des Superintendenten Hermann Huddäus von Ludger vom Ring dem Jüngeren von 1568

Abstract

The conception of the city's sacral character in the Reformation era drew strength from the fundamental role played by the cities in the origin, spread, and establishment of the Reformation. The city connoted the confessionally shaped community, with which one hoped to remain bound beyond death and throughout eternity. The confessional character of Lutheran cities was represented through the city superintendents depicted as episcopal city fathers. In the second half of the sixteenth century portraits of superintendents became fashionable as a medium of representation. This article interprets Ludger tom Ring the Younger's 1568 portrait of the Minden superintendent, Hermann Huddaus (now in Berlin), as an exemplary, programmatic image that applied to the city's rule by the superintendents the conception of the city as a place of promise.