Reformed leaders, especially Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin, actively eliminated imagery from churches within the control of their followers, and regarded the great majority of religious images as idolatrous. Book illustrations and prints were more acceptable, because they were smaller and more private. Later, Reformed Christianity showed consistent hostility to religious images, as idolatry, especially sculpture and large paintings. This began very early in the Reformation, when students in Erfurt destroyed a wooden altar in the Franciscan friary in December 1521. On the other hand, there was a wave of iconoclasm, or the destruction of religious imagery. Thus, for Lutherans, "the Reformation renewed rather than removed the religious image." Stories grew up of "indestructible" images of Luther, that had survived fires, by divine intervention. As such, "Lutheran worship became a complex ritual choreography set in a richly furnished church interior." Lutherans continued the use of the crucifix as it highlighted their high view of the Theology of the Cross. For a few years Lutheran altarpieces like the Last Supper by the younger Cranach were produced in Germany, especially by Luther's friend Lucas Cranach, to replace Catholic ones, often containing portraits of leading reformers as the apostles or other protagonists, but retaining the traditional depiction of Jesus. The use of images was one of the issues where Luther strongly opposed the more radical Andreas Karlstadt. Martin Luther in Germany allowed and encouraged the display of a restricted range of religious imagery in churches, seeing the Evangelical Lutheran Church as a continuation of the "ancient, apostolic church". Lutherans and Reformed Christians had different views regarding religious imagery. Out of these branches grew three main sects, the Lutheran tradition, as well as the Continental Reformed and Anglican traditions, the latter two following the Reformed (Calvinist) faith. The Reformation produced two main branches of Protestantism one was the Evangelical Lutheran churches, which followed the teachings of Martin Luther, and the other the Reformed Churches, which followed the ideas of John Calvin and Huldrych Zwingli. This movement "created a North-South split in Europe, where generally Northern countries became Protestant, while Southern countries remained Catholic." The Protestant Reformation was a religious movement that occurred in Western Europe during the 16th century that resulted in a divide in Christianity between Roman Catholics and Protestants. This retable became visible again after restoration in 1919 removed the false wall placed in front of it. Martin's Cathedral, Utrecht, attacked by Calvinists in the Beeldenstorm in 1566. Artists in Protestant countries diversified into secular forms of art like history painting, landscape painting, portrait painting and still life.Īltar piece in St. Protestant religious art both embraced Protestant values and assisted in the proliferation of Protestantism, but the amount of religious art produced in Protestant countries was hugely reduced. In turn, the Catholic Counter-Reformation both reacted against and responded to Protestant criticisms of art in Roman Catholicism to produce a more stringent style of Catholic art. Calvinists remained steadfastly opposed to art in churches, and suspicious of small printed images of religious subjects, though generally fully accepting secular images in their homes. The Lutheran churches, as they developed, accepted a limited role for larger works of art in churches, and also encouraged prints and book illustrations. A new artistic tradition developed, producing far smaller quantities of art that followed Protestant agendas and diverged drastically from the southern European tradition and the humanist art produced during the High Renaissance. The Protestant Reformation during the 16th century in Europe almost entirely rejected the existing tradition of Catholic art, and very often destroyed as much of it as it could reach. It is small, and generally naturalistic in style, avoiding iconic elements like the halo, which is barely discernible. Hans Holbein the Younger's Noli me tangere a relatively rare Protestant oil painting of Christ from the Reformation period.