For Every Action There is an Equal and Opposite Reaction
There are some key players in the art realm for the period of Reform and Counter-Reform, not the least of which are Martin Luther, Lucas Cranach, Gabriele Paleotti, and one Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt. Each of them were incredibly important to the outcome.
• Martin Luther Martin Luther is the easy pick, since his was the spark that ignited the Reformation. It was not his intention to start a new denomination of Christianity when he posted his 95 Theses in 1517, he just wanted to discuss whether indulgences were something the Church should be endorsing. I'm pretty sure a page of Latin posted to the Wittenberg door would not have drawn any more attention from the masses then than would a page of Latin posted on the door of any Church today, and while today it wouldn't have been as common as it was then, extremely few could have read it in either case. His impact on art was due to a friendship of his discussed below, and while others such as Andreas von Karlstadt and Calvin wanted to destroy art found in the church, he took a much softer approach, which has been taken up by many Protestants from then until now. The new technology which made the Reformation possible was the printing press, and without it some have suggested Luther's ideas would have gone unremarked in any circle but that of a few scholars. The printing press not only spread Luther's ideas, but it also spread a great deal of art in ways unavailable previously.
• Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt may not be well known by his name—it's probably too hard to pronounce—but the result of his handiwork is very well known. Andreas was one of the first to encourage the destruction of sacred images, now known as iconoclasm. He began preaching against what he considered idolatry in the reverence of images found in the Catholic church, and then actively encouraged others to destroy them in 1522. The violence against both the Catholic church and its art was such that it provoked Luther to come out of hiding and deliver a series of sermons called the Invocavit, which denounced the destruction. Three years later Luther wrote in his tract Against the Heavenly Prophets, "I approach the task of destroying images by first tearing them out of the heart through God's Word and making them worthless and despised. ... For when they are no longer in the heart, they can do no harm when seen with the eyes."Von Karlstadt's position was a combination of his reading of the Exodus 20 ban on graven images and the influence of Plato through Augustine, who came more into favor with the Reform.
• Lucas Cranach the Elder Lucas Cranach the Elder is a lesser light in the artwork that changed so dramatically in the next 100 years, but I'm convinced he played a much larger role than he is given credit. He was a close friend of Martin Luther's, and was even the godfather to Luther's children. He also painted portraits of Luther and his family, turning away from painting the sacred images he had previously painted as a Roman Catholic. The direction of art in Protestant countries was indicated even here by Cranach's new emphasis on portraits. Portraiture became very prominent in Protestant countries, and painting exact likenesses—as God had created them—was important to both Cranach and later Protestant artists. It was Cranach's friendship with Luther that may have helped Martin to understand the desires of artists, and how it was a gift from God given to mankind, important in its own right. There's no evidence to say so, but he may have even pointed to Bezalel and Oholiab's being given the Holy Spirit to create for the tabernacle (Exodus 31:1-6), and how important imagery was to both tabernacle and temple. Images couldn't be innately sinful, it was only man's corruption of them, as in the bronze serpent that became an idol to the people in the Old Testament story (2 Kings 18:4). It was a matter of the heart, not the images.
• Gabriele Paleotti Gabriele Paleotti almost single-handedly changed the direction of art for the Roman Catholic church. As you will recall, until the Counter-Reformation art was heavily influenced by Dionysian Neoplatonism, canonized in the writings of the Pseudo-Dionysius. It was extremely mystical, and the imagery was not an end in itself but was a part of the "road upward" for viewers and a meeting place for mystical essences, filled with spiritual powers. With the stroke of a pen, the Council of Trent changed all that. The ideas of Aristotle had finally come to the fore with a new direction for art. The Council desired to counter what they saw as a negative influence on the illiterate peasants and they wished to teach them "proper" doctrine in a way that would inspire faith. The Council mandated that the power of the Church be used through its purse ("follow the money") in purchasing a particular type of art. From here forward, the church would purchase art that was realistic, not stylized, with straightforward teaching, not symbolic and hidden, and would contain images of people in the everyday clothes of those around them so the peasants could relate to what was contained. The paintings would be dramatic and have strong light and dark for emphasis, full of extraordinary stories to inspire faith. There intent was to bring back the peasants to the Church, but the result radically changed how images were to be created, and how the images were to be seen. The new style that resulted inspired not only Catholics, but Protestants to create realistic and dramatic art. It brought the Aristotelian outlook through the Baroque style to all of Europe.
