Dürer and Luther as the Man of Sorrows

Abstract

On two occasions Durer portrayed himself in the guise of the Savior. The first was in 1500 when alike the composition of the picture and the modification of the features unmistakably suggest the traditional portrayal of Christ. The second was in 1522 when, wracked with malaria and sensing the approach of death, he drew his wasted body in the nude with the instruments of the passion, the whip and the scourge, in his hands (Fig. 1). Professor Panofsky very properly inquires how so humble and pious an artist as Durer could have resorted to a device which many less religious men would have considered blasphemy. The answer is found in the theme of the imitation of Christ and further in the concept that genius derived its creative power from God and might be depicted with a resemblance to God.1