Coat of Arms of Hector Pomer 1525

Sebald Beham created this Coat of Arms of Hector Pomer in the 16th century, a period marked by religious reform and social upheaval in Europe. Beham situates us in the world of Hector Pomer, a prior of St. Lorenz in Nuremberg. The piece depicts Saint Lawrence and a female figure beside a heraldic shield, interwoven with complex symbolic details and inscriptions in multiple languages, including Hebrew and Greek. It speaks to the intersection of religious identity, humanist scholarship, and civic pride. The emotional complexity of the work lies in its capacity to unite seemingly disparate cultural and religious traditions, reflecting the humanist aspiration to find common threads across diverse perspectives. "To the pure, all things are pure". This message, inscribed in the artwork, seems to assert a universalist ethical principle, yet it also reveals the tensions inherent in negotiating religious and cultural differences during the Reformation.