Description
In 1535, Reinhart completed a stunning portrait medal of Johann Friedrich, duke of Saxony, and, the following year, the duke commissioned this medal, to which on some versions a ring was added to make it into a pendant. With its particular interpretation of the theme of the Fall and redemption of man, so central to the Reformation theology preached by Martin Luther and his followers, it is the first Lutheran medal.
Provenance
Mrs. Henry Walters Sale, New York; Douglas H. Gordon, Baltimore, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1943, by gift.
Inscriptions
On the obverse (The Fall):
ET.SICVT.IN.ADAM.OMNES.MORIVNTVR.ITA.ET.IN.CHRISTVM.OMNES.VIVIFICABVNTVR.VNVSQVISQVE.INORDINE.SVO
below the scene on a scroll:
IONNAIS.FRIDERICVS.ELECTOR.DVX.SAXONIE.FIERI.FECIT
On the reverse (The Crucifixion):
VT.MOSES.EREXIT.SERPeTe; ITa.chrS.IN.CRVCE.EXALTATVS.ET.RESVSCiTATVS.CAPVT.SERPeTiS.CONTIViT.VT.
On a scroll beneath the main scene:
SPES.MEA.IN.DEO.EST.
Credit
Gift of Douglas H. Gordon, 1943