“Nothing but a Fable”

Protestant artists typically avoided the Harrowing of Hell altogether or treated it as allegory. This central panel of the altar triptych from the Evangelical Lutheran City Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Weimar, Germany, does both. At first glance, this image, painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his son Lucas Cranach the Younger in 1555, might appear to be a typical crucifixion scene, except that Jesus appears twice: on the cross and in the left foreground, dressed in a red robe, and standing with one foot resting on a skeleton symbolizing Death and the other foot pinning a grotesque representation of Satan. The painting clearly presents the crucifixion as the moment when Jesus triumphs over Death and Sin, represented by the Devil. Yet the artists have omitted the highly suspect descent into Hell, which John Calvin dismissed as “nothing but a fable.”