Historians of art and of German culture alike traditionally have interpreted the Reformation period as one of crisis and ultimate decline in the area of the visual arts. This view, while perhaps correct in broad outline, should be accepted only with certain qualifications. The German Reformers, and Luther in particular, were not as hostile to aesthetic expression as has sometimes been alleged. In Lutheran Nuernberg there occurred very little iconoclasm; in fact, Medieval and Renaissance art works were more fully preserved there than in many Catholic areas where they were later replaced by Baroque creations. It is true that, following the Reformation, few new commissions were given for works of ecclesiastical art. It is also no doubt true that the economic position of the artist was thereby gravely endangered, as examples cited later in this study will indicate. The evidence suggests, however, that the picture was not uniformly bleak.
The Bonnet and the Beret in Medieval and German Renaissance Art