Luther artifacts on display in Minneapolis
Minneapolis — Perhaps the greatest compilation of items examining the life and times of Martin Luther — the monk who broke away from the Catholic Church to embark on the Protestant Reformation — is on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
First editions of “Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,” chests used to collect money for indulgences, and Luther’s early translations of the Bible into German bring the Reformation era alive. For Milwaukeeans, “Martin Luther: Art and the Reformation” is just a five-hour jaunt up I-94.
“You’ll never see this accumulation of Reformation objects in one place again,” said Tom Rassieur, MIA curator of prints and paintings.
As the 500th anniversary of Luther’s “NinetyFive Theses” approaches, the time is right for an examination of the man who sparked a religious revolution. The anniversary of Luther’s condemnation of the Catholic Church’s selling of indulgences and other theological matters will be observed internationally Oct. 31, 2017.
This exhibit carefully examines the life of a man who transformed from the son of a mining entrepreneur into a central figure in European culture.
Much of the exhibit is document based, including a printed copy of “Ninety-Five Theses” from 1517, Martin Luther’s own letters to colleagues and Pope Leo X’s Bull of Excommunication against Luther.
Then there are artifacts from Martin Luther’s life: his monastic habit, spoon, furniture from his home and even the mug it’s believed he used to drink his wife’s beer. Many of those items were unearthed during excavations in the early 2000s at Luther’s boyhood homes in Eisleben and Mansfeld and his house in Wittenberg.
Luther saw art as a tool to communicate with the public. Satirical cartoons and other propaganda show the political turmoil of the Reformation. The exhibit also includes portraits of Martin Luther and his wife, Katharina, and the beautiful altar of the Virgin Mary from the Naumburg Cathedral that dates to the 1500s.
Touring the exhibit
The gallery is organized into eight rooms starting with Luther’s origins and childhood. The next two rooms, on themes of feudal power and country art and preReformation piety — expose the power and corruption of the Catholic Church during Luther’s time. Then Luther as a monk, scholar and preacher is explored through his theology and life in Wittenberg. The last two spaces share the conflict the Reformation caused and Luther’s legacy.
An average visitor goes through the exhibit in two hours. Save time and avoid waiting in line for an audio guide ($6) by downloading the museum’s app before arriving. The app is free and the audio download is a $2.99 in-app purchase. If you forget your headphones like I did, the app has transcripts of what the curators and other scholars have to say about the exhibit.
The collection comes from two dozen lending institutions working with MIA. To see all this outside the exhibit, you’d have to tour Germany — Wittenberg, Wurzburg, Berlin. Halberstadt, Naumburg, Merseburg, Gotha — to name a few.
“Such an exhibit is not even possible in Germany because the individual institutions in Germany want the objects in their own places,” Rassieur said.
Other items have never been exhibited before and will never travel again.
For instance, the blue and gold pulpit painted with images of the Virgin Mary and other saints, now installed in the room examining Luther as a monk, scholar and preacher, comes from a church in Eisleben, Germany, where Luther gave his last sermon.
Curators wanted to include a pulpit because Luther elevated the importance of sermons in liturgy. The pulpit, from St. Andrew’s Church in Eisleben, had been badly damaged by insects, so the Minneapolis museum paid for the restoration by conservators in Germany. The pulpit, built in 1518, will be reinstalled in St. Andrew’s after its time in Minnesota.
The Minneapolis Institute of Art is the only place to see the full exhibit. Two smaller exhibitions will be shown at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City and the Pitts Theology Library of Emory University in Atlanta. The Minnesota exhibit was made possible because the Luther House in Wittenberg, Germany, is closed before the anniversary, allowing for key works to travel. The lending institutions are anxious to get the books, letters and art back to be reinstalled in their galleries before tourists pilgrimage to Germany for the 500th anniversary. Other highlights:
Vestments worn by Catholic priests in the late medieval and early renaissance times.
The 157-panel Gotha Altar Piece that shows three scenes from the Old Testament’s description of the creation plus scenes from Jesus’ life.
A hand-colored copy of Luther’s complete translation of the Bible into German, the Ortenburg Bible (1535).