Print's Visual Power

Before printing, images were luxury goods — you saw them by commissioning a painting or visiting a church. Woodcut and engraving technology changed that, putting the same picture into ordinary hands for the first time.

Luther saw the potential at once. He partnered with the artist Lucas Cranach to produce illustrated pamphlets that cast the Pope as the Antichrist — images that crossed Germany faster than any theological argument could travel. Visual propaganda mobilized popular support in a way written theology never could.