Philipp Melanchthon (1543) Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560), who became a professor of Greek in Wittenberg at the age of 21, was Martin Luther’s closest associate and a major Protestant theologian in his own right. Like many other protagonists of the Reformation, Melanchthon sat for a portrait by Lucas Cranach the Elder. It is through Cranach’s numerous portraits of Luther and his circle – as well as the countless copies thereof – that we have come to know the leading figures of the Reformation. Oil painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), 1543.