Did Luther really nail his 95 theses to the main door of the Wittenberg Castle church? Reformation historians are still discussing this point 500 years later. In fact, Luther himself never mentioned the theses. Belgian historical painter Ferdinand Pauwels didn't seem to care - he painted Luther with hammer and nails anyway.

"Exsurge Domine" ("Arise, Oh Lord") was a papal bull written by Leo X on June 15, 1520. In it, he asked Martin Luther to recant what he had written in his 95 theses, or else face expulsion from the church. The reformer would not back down and burned the paper in an act of protest.

Hero or ruffian? The German image of Martin Luther has changed throughout history depending on the political climate. The Nazis, as well as the communist East German regime, used the reformer to suit their own purposes. This memorial, erected in 1895 in Eisenach, recalls Luther's time at the Wartburg Castle. There, he translated the New Testament of the Bible into German in only 10 weeks.

The religious divisions from the 16th to 18th centuries affected artists as well. The Protestant artwork of Lucas Cranach, the Elder, placed the pope with lewd figures. The Catholic side countered, for example, with Egbert II van Heemskerck's painting "Luther in Hell." The reformer seems to be surrounded with eerie monsters, hellish demons and devils at the entrance to hell.

Adam and Eve are depicted eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Written about in Christian teachings, this "sinful" topic was taken up not only by theologians, philosophers and worshipers, but also by artists. This baptismal bowl from the first half of the 16th century is one of the highlights of the exhibition in Wartburg.

Lucas Cranach, the Elder (1472-1553), was not only a well-known painter of the German Renaissance. He was also a painter of the Reformation and a good friend of Martin Luther's The artistic entrepreneur had a workshop for painting and graphic printing in Wittenberg. In this picture, he depicts Jesus Christ with a group of women who are holding their children up to him to be blessed.

Lucas Cranach painted "Bildnis des Hans Luther" (Luther's father) in 1527. Many portraits of the reformer came from his studio. Today, they are regarded as masterpieces of art history. In these depictions, Luther sometimes resembles a rigid monk, or as his bearded alias "Junker Jörg," or again as a scholar. Regardless of how he was depicted, Cranach's paintings gave a face to the Reformation.

In this painting (1625-1650) dating from around 100 years after the Reformation, Martin Luther (center) is among a circle of reformers. Portraying the renewal of the church and the battle of wills among religious scholars as secular rulers watch on in the foreground, the painting signifies the interwoven nature of religion and politics at the time.

Edward VI (1537-1553), whose father Henry VIII had separated the English church from Rome, was the first English king with a Protestant education. Edward held religious services in the English language, abolished celibacy for priests and introduced the Book of Common Prayer before dying as a 15-year-old. The painting is "King Edward VI and the Pope" by an unknown artist from circa 1575.

Korea and then later South Korea were considered boom countries for Protestantism as it spread east. An important part of the mission was to make use of the phonemic Korean alphabetic, Hangul, for Bible translations. Today, nearly one fifth of the South Korean population follows the Protestant doctrine, which is a record in East Asia.

"Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way," a mural by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze on display in the United States Capitol Building, shows American pioneers reaching the Rocky Mountains as they head West. Below them is a panorama of the pristine San Francisco Bay is the distance. Many such pilgrims were Protestants who had been persecuted in Europe, but left and spread their faith across America.

Morning prayer in the Lutheran Kariakoo church in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Evangelical church in the East African nation is the largest Lutheran parish on the continent. Their charismatic leaders see themselves as representatives of the original Lutheran ideals.

The Moravian Brotherhood, a Christian faith movement originating from the Bohemian Reformation that is not bound by any denomination, played a major role in the spread of Protestantism throughout Africa. Their charismatic preachers spread from Tanzania across the entire African continent doing missionary work. Johann Valentin Haidt portrays this Luther effect in his "Erstlingsbild" from 1748.

Protestantism penetrated the remotest corners of Northern Europe. The church abruptly changed the life of the indigenous residents as their local rites and customs had to give way to Christianization and the church. An unknown painter captured this theme sometimes prior to 1668 in far northern Lapland using both summer and winter landscapes.

When Sweden’s King Gustavus II Adolphus attacked parts of what is now Germany during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) and prevented a victory for the Habsburg-Catholic coalition, he inadvertently secured the future of German Protestantism. The act was glorifed in this painting titled “Apotheosis of King Gustavus II Adolphus” from around 1650.

This tapestry embroidered with silk and wool shows the interweaving of Lutheran faith into the state. The Swedish parliament adopted a new law in 1686 that sealed the unity of the church and state, and Lutheranism became the state religion. The textile from around 1690 shows the swearing-in of the representatives of the estates on both the Bible and the Swedish Book of Law.