The Reformation of the Image

The Reformation of the Image illuminates one century of Protestant art and Architercture. Instead of promising a means of salvation or imaginative transport, Lutheran images show only what a word-based religion looks like: such images are redundant, exhibiting what a church ordinanarily performs. Koerner argues that such portrayals invent an image of society. The story begins in Wittenberg, Saxony, in the throes of religious change. In 1522, while Martin Luther was in hidding from Catholic forces, parishioners destroyed the images in the church of his ministry. On his return, the Reformer, instead of lauding their evangelical real, repudiated the image-breakers. Arresting the firts iconoclasm of the modern era, Luther paved the way for new type of church art, one modelled on the communicative reliability of words. One of the most important studies ever written of the impact of Protestantism on art production and reception.