This compelling book retells and revises the story of the German Renaissance and Reformation through the lives of two controversial men of the sixteenth century: the Saxon court painter Lucas Cranach (the Serpent) and the Wittenberg monk-turned-reformer Martin Luther (the Lamb). Contemporaries and friends (each was godfather to the other's children), Cranach and Luther were very different Germans, yet their collaborative successes merged art and religion into a revolutionary force that became the Protestant Reformation.

Steven Ozment, an internationally recognized historian of the Reformation era, reprises the lives and works of Cranach (1472-1553) and Luther (1483-1546) in this generously illustrated book. He contends that Cranach's new art and Luther's oratory released a barrage of criticism upon the Vatican, the force of which secured a new freedom of faith and pluralism of religion in the Western world. Between Luther's pulpit praise of the sex drive within the divine estate of marriage and Cranach's parade of strong, lithe women, a new romantic, familial consciousness was born. The "Cranach woman" and the "Lutheran household" - both products of the merged Renaissance and Reformation worlds - evoked a new organization of society and foretold a new direction for Germany.

Steven Ozment is McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History, Harvard University. He is the author of ten books, including Age of Reform, 1250-1550, which was a National Book Award finalist.

'Applying a historian's eye to one of the greatest artists of the Reformation, Ozment paints an absorbing portrait of a cultural giant at the heart of tumultuous events. Martin Luther could not have found a truer friend, or a more brilliant craftsman, to bring his image to the public gaze.' Andrew Pettegree, University of St Andrews

'The Serpent and the Lamb is packed with stunning images and brilliant analysis, a sheer delight for serious readers of Reformation era history and art.' Brian Odom, Washington Independent Review of Books

'Outstanding' illustrations 'accompanied by Ozment’s invariably insightful and thought-provoking commentary.' America Magazine

'There are few historians more likely than Steven Ozment to provoke intense debate with each new thought-provoking book. This study is no exception, reintroducing the court painter, Lucas Cranach, not only as an amazing and exceptional artist (which no one doubts), but alsom, and more surprisingly, as a tireless advocate and endlessly resourceful propagandist for Luther's Reformation. Must reading for students of the Renaissance and Reformation.' David C. Steinmetz, Duke University