Today is the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, a real fork in the road for humanity. Raised as a Protestant, I have not written much on the Reformation. But here I did. This was first posted on August 22, 2006 and along with the next post will constitute my commemoration today.
Opposite is "Luther Preaching to the Wittenberg Congregation" by Lucas Cranach the Elder. The painting is on the predella of the altarpiece in the Stadtkirche in Wittenberg, Germany. The image here was scanned from Joseph Leo Koerner's wonderful 2004 book The Reformation of the Image (The inklines on the photograph are mine).
This year, when I decided to share these old murder scene photographs with an audience in the tens, I hadn't looked at them for a year or so and when I pulled #10 out, I was reminded of the similarly composed work by Cranach.
The similarities were obvious and to me, eery, and funny. Both Luther and the detective in #10 gesture with their right arms. Both gestures vacuously draw the viewer's attention to the obvious dead person.
The theme song from The Outer Limits began playing in my head.
Opposite is "Luther Preaching to the Wittenberg Congregation" by Lucas Cranach the Elder. The painting is on the predella of the altarpiece in the Stadtkirche in Wittenberg, Germany. The image here was scanned from Joseph Leo Koerner's wonderful 2004 book The Reformation of the Image (The inklines on the photograph are mine).
This year, when I decided to share these old murder scene photographs with an audience in the tens, I hadn't looked at them for a year or so and when I pulled #10 out, I was reminded of the similarly composed work by Cranach.
The similarities were obvious and to me, eery, and funny. Both Luther and the detective in #10 gesture with their right arms. Both gestures vacuously draw the viewer's attention to the obvious dead person.
The theme song from The Outer Limits began playing in my head.
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