Jesus is preaching with speaking gestures under a tree at right within the wilderness, as the apostles look on opposite him. The associated text emphasizes his sermonizing (Luke 4: 43-44). Seated at his feet on the lower left within his audience are several prominent mothers with children, a favorite subject by Cranach in his later Lutheran paintings (Matthew 19: 13-15).

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Within the framework of the emerging Lutheran theology this theme had a strong evangelical value: for one, it reinforced the principle of infant baptism, already a contested debate among Reformers; but it also had the value of emphasizing the doctrine of sola fide, where the innocent trust of children could be likened to the faith required of Christian true believers.

Works Cited

• Christensen, Carl. Art and the Reformation in Germany. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1979.
• Brinkmann, Bodo. Witches’ Lust and the Fall of Man. The Strange Fantasies of Hans Baldung Grien. Frankfurt: Staedel Museum, 2007.
• Brinkmann, Bodo, and Stephan Kemperdick. Deutsche Gemälde Im Städel 1500-1550. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 2005.