Christopher Duffin
London, England

“By [the Lord’s works] the physician heals and takes away pain; the pharmacist makes a mixture from them.” (Sirach 38:7–8, NIV)

When Martin Luther (1483–1546) completed his translation of the Bible into vernacular German in 1534, he used the word Arznei or “apothecary” where “pharmacist” is used today. The identification of Jesus as a heavenly physician (a foundational Christian metaphor firmly rooted in the Gospels, e.g. Mark 2:17), now translated as a divine apothecary (Apothecarius coelestis), gave rise to an entire genre of religious folk art reflecting an upsurge in personal piety from the early seventeenth century onwards. It has been argued that the paintings produced in this era were primarily means of propagating the Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith, with the Catholic Counter-Reformation response being to produce similar images emphasizing God’s open invitation to find spiritual nourishment and satisfaction free of charge (Isaiah 55:1).¹

These pictures, over 120 examples of which are known,² were particularly popular in southern Germany. The literature associated with them is almost exclusively in German; they are otherwise little known. Two examples are presented here. One (Fig. 1) belongs to the Protestant tradition and the other (Fig. 2) to the Catholic. There are some interesting similarities and differences between the two. In both instances, a three-quarter length figure of Christ faces the viewer, standing behind a compounding table. The Protestant figure is dressed in a long-sleeved, dark-brown robe with gold trim and a red cloak folded over his arm. The rather understated faint nimbus surrounding his head indicates his holy association; he could otherwise pass as a working apothecary. The Catholic depiction of Christ is altogether different. In Fig. 2, he is presented as the Man of Sorrows, displaying the marks of the Passion: his head, wearing the crown of thorns, is surrounded by a more effulgent halo, his open palms displaying the wounds of the crucifixion nails and his naked torso the spear-thrust to his side. He sweats drops of blood, and wears a red cape loosely tied around the neck and a white loin cloth.

Each figure holds in one hand an apothecary balance hanging from a red thread and comprising a balance beam with a small empty pan suspended at either end. One of the day-to-day instruments used by the apothecary to weigh out medicinal ingredients, in the context of Christian eschatology, the balance was for weighing the soul at the time of Judgement. In some examples, a crucifix was placed in one pan, indicating that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross outweighs the accumulated weight of sin. In yet others, the second pan may show a small associated demon bent on its work of increasing the weight of sin in the life of a person.³

The Catholic example depicts an ornate chalice labeled “Faith” with a communion Host hovering above it, sitting on a square white altar cloth in front of Christ the Apothecary. By contrast, the Protestant example has an open sack of “Creutz wurz” in a similar position, from which the Apothecary removes samples for addition to the weighing pans by means of an apothecarial spoon. A pile of small crosses labeled “Creuzwurz” is located near the front edge of the dispensing table in Fig. 2.

In the Protestant image, shelves in the background house nine lidded containers with another twelve of similar form standing on the tabletop. In the Catholic example, containers of comparable form are restricted to the table surface. The containers’ style clearly indicates that they are apothecary jars. A mixture of ceramic and wooden jars appears in Fig. 2 and only wooden jars in Fig. 1. In each case, a diagonal cartouche displays the identity of the contents. Rather than housing standard medicinal simples, the apothecary jar labels indicate that they are filled with remedies for treating the soul. The jars in the Protestant image include those for humility, mercy, patience, purity of heart, justice, God’s grace, eye-comfort, eternal life, sugar of divine love, goodness, faith, hope, love, steadfastness, examination of conscience, contrition and sorrow, sincere confession, and perfect penance. Those displayed in the Catholic example include canisters for humility, constancy, chastity, mercy, hope, fortitude, patience, temperance, God’s grace, mercy, eternal life, and love.

A small angel acts as an assistant in the Protestant image, and the table surface contains additional equipment used in the compounding of drugs—a brass pestle and mortar, a jug of white wine to act as a vehicle for administration of the mixtures, and an open container for apothecarial weights. The Catholic image contains an upright Bible (labeled “Evangelin”); three open glass vials containing water, oil and wine; and a small bunch of pansies (representing the Holy Trinity) labeled “Day and Night” to indicate dosage administration. In addition, three Biblical verses are displayed: (1) Luke 11:9 (“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you”) to the right of Christ’s head; (2) Matthew 11:28 (“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”) along the leading edge of the table; and (3) Psalm 50:15 (“Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me”) to the left of Christ’s head.

A white panel below the leading edge of the table in the Protestant example records “A fine, delicious remedy to be used for all ailments of the soul.” This commends the supplicant to send a prayerful message to the Apothecary of the Holy Trinity asking him to compound together gentleness, humility, mercy, patience, purity of heart, mind and body, pounded together with the sugar of divine love and contemplation of the innocent shedding of blood by Jesus. To this mixture, measures of living water and shed tears were to be added, and the liquid drunk over a five-day period. This was to be accompanied by the following spiritual regimen: (1) examine your conscience and see how you have sinned, (2) feel remorse and sorrow, (3) make a sincere confession, (4) make a perfect penance, and (5) resolve to sin no more. The conclusion is that “This medicine is proven and surpasses all medicines in the world.”

Following the Reformation, there was a resurgence of personal piety in German-speaking countries. Allegorical artwork growing out of the folk medicine tradition represented one expression of this movement. Here, Jesus Christ was presented as an apothecary tending to the ills of the soul by recommending combinations of Christian virtues and God’s provision of grace according to the theological background of the image.

End notes

1. Fritz Krafft, Christus ruft in die Himmelsapotheke (Stuttgart: Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft, 2002).
2. Harald Pfeiffer, “Christus als Apotheker. Beschreibung und Deutung des OlgemSildes im Deutschen Apotheken-Museum in-Heidelberg mit einem Beitrag zur Entstehung des Bildmotivs.” Geschichte der Pharmazie, 44 (1992): 1-9.
3. Krafft, Christus ruft in die Himmelsapotheke, 190, 193, 196.