Opposed to the humility of Christ, the pope also appears at the compositional center, frontal and at the top of the print. As usual by now in the series, he is flanked by clergy on either side. But he is presiding from above at a fully festive secular event, a joust between two heavily armored knights. Fifteen years earlier Cranach had already produced similar tournament woodcuts for his patron, Frederick the Wise, at the Saxon court.

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Before the pope a brocade is unfurled, and ladies watch from the upper left, while a brass choir plays trombones at the upper right. The German text below this image contradicts the Philippians text below Jesus, as it explicitly castigates the pope for such pleasure-seeking: “The pope thinks that his honor should not submit to humility.”

Works Cited

• Koepplin, Dieter, and Tilman Falk, eds. Lukas Cranach. Basel: Kunstmuseum, 1974.