Evaluate the iconography of Cranach’s Allegory of Law and Grace (Figure 17.5) in terms of Lutheran doctrine.

What will be an ideal response?

Cranach uses a half-living, half-dead tree to illustrate the difference between Catholic dependency on good works and Protestant reliance on grace or faith. On the dead side a sinner is condemned to hell because of his inevitable failure as a child of Adam and Eve to live by God’s law. On the living side of the tree, Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection steps on Death and the Devil, and a sinner, showered in the blood of Christ, is saved by his belief.