The Wittenberg Altarpiece in the Stadtkirche (Town Church) of Wittenberg, painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder and completed by his son Lucas Cranach the Younger after 1547, is athe single most important visual monument of the Lutheran Reformation - a work that gave the Protestant movement its definitive sacred imagery and articulated in paint the theology that Luther had proclaimed in print.
The commission came from a church that had already been the site of the Reformation's birth: it was in the Stadtkirche that Luther first preached his reformed theology, before and after the famous posting of the Ninety-Five Theses. The altarpiece was designed to give visual form to the sacramental theology of Lutheran Christianity - specifically to the two sacraments (Baptism and the Lord's Supper) and two practices (Confession/Absolution and Preaching) that Luther had identified as the constitutive acts of the reformed church.
The triptych structure of the altarpiece deploys three main panels and a predella. The left wing depicts Baptism by Philip Melanchthon - Luther's colleague and the Reformation's systematic theologian - based on Matthew 3:16 and its command to baptize in the name of the Trinity. The right wing shows Confession and Absolution. The central panel presents the Lord's Supper, with Luther himself depicted among the disciples in the guise of 'Junker Jorg,' his disguise during his protective imprisonment at the Wartburg. Both bread and wine are distributed - a deliberate visual statement of the Lutheran principle of Communion in both kinds, against the Catholic practice of withholding the chalice from the laity.
The predella panel below the main triptych is the most theologically concentrated element. Luther stands in a pulpit, pointing with his right hand toward a crucified Christ who occupies the center of the composition. To the right, a congregation listens - including Cranach's family and other Wittenberg citizens. The gesture of pointing is the visual embodiment of Luther's core hermeneutic: the preacher's task is to point away from himself toward Christ crucified. 'For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified' (1 Corinthians 2:2) is the text that the predella illustrates.
The altarpiece is also a document of Lutheran theology's use of the arts. Where radical Protestant reformers in Zurich and Geneva stripped churches of images, Luther retained and redirected sacred art: images should teach, point toward Christ, and make the biblical narrative vivid to the congregation. The Wittenberg Altarpiece is the supreme example of this reformed use of visual art.
The Stadtkirche in Wittenberg remains an active Lutheran church and is open to visitors as part of the Luther memorial sites in Wittenberg, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The altarpiece is visible in the chancel and is regularly cited in guided tours of the Reformation heritage of the town.