His father wanted him to be a goldsmith, the family business, but his son aspired to become an artist. Some of you will identify with choosing a career path contrary to parental wishes. His father said he couldn’t afford to send him to art school and who could blame him? His son was one of eighteen children to feed and clothe. The son said he would pay for art school and did just that.
Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) became a successful artist. The work for which he is most famous in his ink and pencil drawing of “Praying Hands.” It’s one of the most recognizable images in art history. I remember seeing it framed in my grandparent’s home. Why, it’s even on Andy Warhol’s tombstone. Albrecht labored longer over his last painting of “Four Holy Men” than any of his previous eight hundred artworks.
Albrecht had been a devout Catholic his entire life and dutifully followed the church’s teaching. When he read what Martin Luther wrote about grace, a light went on. He experienced the assurance of God’s mercy based on divine favor, not human merit. The painting features four of Jesus’ disciples: John, Peter, Paul and Mark. John and Paul, two of Luther’s favorite disciples, are featured in the foreground while Peter, grasping the keys to the church, looks intently at the Bible John is holding. At the bottom of the painting, are the words of Revelation 22 that God intended nothing to be added or subtracted from his Word. When the painting became the possession of a Catholic prince from Bavaria, he had the inscription sawed off because it came from Martin Luther’s translation of Scripture. Too bad! What Luther wrote about grace can be transformative. A prayer from Albrecht: