Artist Index

Hans Ebenn commemorative plaque

workshop: Cranach, Lucas, the Elder (1472-1553) (portrait of Luther)

author: unknown Wrocław painter

date: ca 1540

place of creation: Germany

object type: picture / painting

material: linden panel

technique: tempera

dimensions: H 27 × W 26.8 cm; framing: H 104 x W 70 cm

signature:

right bottom corner: mark of the Cranachs workshop (a figure of a winged serpent;
on the back: Lucas Cranach Mahler zur / Wittenberg hatt dießes gemahlett

inscription:

at the top: M:[artin] L:[uther] D:[octor];
on the friese: Verbum D[omi]ni, manet in aeternum, na cokole: Gottes Wordt undt Lutheri Lehr. / Vergehet nun undt nimmer mehr;
on panels beneath the coats of arms: Der Fingerlin / aus Schwaben, Der Ebenn / von Brunnen, Der Spremberger / von Arnolds Mühl, Der Rindtfleisch / von Strachwitz, below: Hanns Ebenn von Brunnen. Herby: Finger, Eben, Spremberg, Rindfleisch (left bottom)

to 1942

St Elizabeth Church (Wrocław),

Wrocław (Wrocław County; Lower Silesian Voivodeship),

former location

1942-1946

German depository in Kamieniec Ząbkowicki,

Kamieniec Ząbkowicki (Ząbkowice Śląskie County; Lower Silesian Voivodeship),

safekeeping

1946-1992

National Museum in Warsaw,

Warsaw (County Warszawa; Voivodeship Masovia),

property; M.Ob. 1759

1992-2001

State Museum in Wrocław; 1950-1970 Silesian Museum; since 1970 National Museum,

Wrocław (Wrocław County; Lower Silesian Voivodeship),

deposit

The Fashion for Cranach, National Museum in Wroclaw, 31.10.2017 - 31.12.2017
The royal city - three centuries of changes in the artistic culture of Toruń (1454-1793), District Museum in Toruń, Old Town Hall, 02.10.2021 - 28.11.2021

Houszka, Ewa, Pierzchała, Marek, Moda na Cranacha, Wrocław 2017, poz. 55.
Lejman, Beata, Malarstwo Europy Środkowej XVI-XVIII w. Niemcy, Austria, Czechy, Węgry, Słowacja. Katalog zbiorów., Wrocław 2012, seria Katalogi Zbiorów Muzeum Narodowego we Wrocławiu, kat. 21, s. 110
Malarstwo śląskie 1520-1800, red. Pierzchała, Marek, Wrocław 2009, seria Katalogi Zbiorów Muzeum Narodowego we Wrocławiu, s. 175 - 176, kat. 85

provenance: 2001, transfer

on display: Europeran Art of the 15th – 20th c., room II, Main Building

National Museum in Wrocław Department of Painting 16th–19th c.

inventory number: MNWr VIII-2987

copyrights to object: PUBLIC DOMAIN

permalink: https://muzeumcyfrowe.mnwr.pl/en/exhibit/p/mnwr_viii-2987

The commemorative plaque from St Elisabeth's Church in Wrocław (then Breslau) has in its central field a portrait of Martin Luther (1483-1546), who was the founder of the Protestant Reformation movement and translated the Bible into German. After studying humanities, he joined the Augustinian order in 1505, obtained a doctorate in theology at the University of Wittemberg in 1512, and was appointed to the Chair of Biblical Studies. Embittered by the situation in the Church at that time, on his return from Rome in 1517 he posted his theses of the Reformation, which did not meet with the approval of the Church hierarchy, resulting in the religious schism and wars.

The painting was mounted as the central scene of the epitaph of Hans Ebenn von Brunnen (1577-1639), Captain of the City guard in Breslau, at that time a decidedly Lutheran city but under the rule of the ultra-Catholic Habsburg emperors, during the particularly cruel Thirty Years’ War (in the 1530s). The inscriptions motivate the use of this image as a tribute to the Reformer, and also serve as a declaration of Ebben's own faith. The painting carries a signature in the form of a winged serpent, the symbol of Cranach's important workshop, which accepted commissions not only from the Reformation leaders, but also, for example, from Archbishop Albrecht of Brandenburg, who planned to establish a universitiy in Halle to rival that of Wittenberg.
[Beata Lejman]

person depicted: Luther, Martin (1483-1546) – protestant reformer

Hans Ebenn commemorative plaque

Privacy Settings (cookies)

Necessary (2)

Statistics (4)

Functional (2)