Albert von Brandenburg (German: Albrecht von Brandenburg; 28 June 1490 – 24 September 1545) was a German cardinal, elector, Archbishop of Mainz from 1514 to 1545, and Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1513 to 1545.
Through his notorious sale of indulgences, he became the catalyst for Martin Luther's Reformation and its staunch opponent.
The Elector of Mainz was one of the seven Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire. As both the Archbishop of Mainz and the ruling prince of the Electorate of Mainz, the Elector of Mainz held a powerful position during the Middle Ages. The Archbishop-Elector was president of the electoral college, archchancellor of the empire, and the Primate of Germany as the papal legate north of the Alps, until the dissolution of the empire in 1806.
The origin of the title dates back to 747, when the city of Mainz was made the seat of an archbishop, and a succession of able and ambitious prelates made the district under their rule a strong and vigorous state. Among these men were important figures in the history of Germany such as Hatto I, Adalbert of Mainz, Siegfried III, Peter of Aspelt and Albert of Brandenburg. There were several violent contests between rivals for the archbishopric, and their power struggles occasionally moved the citizens of Mainz to revolt. The lands of the elector lay around the city of Mainz on both banks of the Rhine; their area reached 3200 sq. miles by the end of the Empire. The last elector was Karl Theodor von Dalberg, who lost his temporal power when the archbishopric was secularized in 1803.
Portrait of Martin Luther may refer to any oil painting from a series of portrayals of Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach the Elder. That artist and his studio produced countless painted and printed portraits of Luther and it is often difficult to determine to what extent the paintings are autograph works. They often formed a diptych with a portrait of Luther's wife Katharina von Bora or his close associate Philipp Melanchthon.
Cranach was a close friend and follower of Luther who was also active in Wittenberg. In addition to the portraits, Cranach also produced designs for the woodcuts for the first edition of the reformer's German translation of the New Testament in 1522. Otherwise, however, his choice of motifs cannot be said to have been influenced by his Lutheran faith. He painted mythological and biblical motifs, images of saints and executed many portraits – even of religious opponents such as Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg.