Lot 507
JOHANN DANIEL LEBRECHT FRANZ WAGNER (1810- after 1864)
Friar Johann Tetzel Selling Indulgences
Oil on canvas
Signed and dated lower right "Franz Wagner-1842"
37.3 inches x 47.6 inches (95 x 121 cm)
Estimate:  $5,000 - 8,000  

Price Realized: $9,375.00

Provenance:
Sotheby’s New York July 20, 1995, sale number 1511, lot 441 under the title, “Spread of the Protestant Reformation.”

Published:
It would seem likely that the offered lot is the same work listed in the 1851 German language edition of the New General Artist Encyclopedia of the Life and Works of Painters, Sculptors, Engravers, Lithographiers and draftsman, by Dr. George Kasper Nagler (1801-1861) Neues allgemeines Künstler - Lexicon oder Nachrichten von dem Leben und den Werken der Maler, Bildhauer, Baumeister, Kupferstecher, Formschneider, Lithographen, Zeichner, Medailleure, Elfenbeinarbeite page 60 as “Tetzel Selling Indulgences Berlin 1517”.

The offered lot would appear to depict a scene outside the church of Saint Nicholas in Berlin Germany which is said to have taken place in 1517. At center is depicted Tetzel atop a platform in the habit of a Dominican friar and behind him a cross displays a Papal Bull inscribed with the name of Pope Leo X who, in 1517, offered indulgences for those who gave alms to rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Beneath him is a coffer which came to be called a Tetzelkasten by the reformers. At his side a habited assistant hands out indulgences to all those who have eagerly paid including all strata of society as indicated by the various quality of clothing worn by those gathered around the platform. It was of course the aggressive marketing practices of Tetzel and his erroneous teaching on indulgences for the dead, which clearly contradicted Church teaching that provoked the young Augustinian Friar, Martin Luther, to write his Bishop with his concerns. In his letter, now known as his Ninety-Five Theses, Luther particularly objected to a rhyme attributed to Tetzel: “Wenn das Geld im Kasten klingt, die Seele aus dem Feuer springt” - As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs. This oft-quoted saying was by no means representative of the official Catholic teaching on indulgences, but rather, more a reflection of Tetzel’s capacity to exaggerate. Yet if Tetzel overstated the matter in regard to indulgences for the dead, his teaching on indulgences for the living was pure. Indeed Luther did not deny the Pope’s right to grant pardons for penance imposed by the Church; but rather stated, in unison with Church teaching, that preachers who claimed indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error. At the end of 1518 Tetzel withdrew to Leipzig priory, where he died in obscurity.