Portrait of Frederick III of Saxony

Portrait of Frederick III of Saxony

Title

Portrait of Frederick III of Saxony

[British Museum online database: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_SLPictures-271; accessed 28.05.2020]

Painting on wood

Medium

Painting on wood

[British Museum online database: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_SLPictures-271; accessed 28.05.2020]

A bust-length portrait of Friedrich III of Saxony facing right, wearing a black cap, a white pleated shirt and doublet with a fur collar. The sitter is shown against a light blue background. Two verses of letterpress on paper are stuck to the panel underneath the image, and a piece

A bust-length portrait of Friedrich III of Saxony facing right, wearing a black cap, a white pleated shirt and doublet with a fur collar. The sitter is shown against a light blue background. Two verses of letterpress on paper are stuck to the panel underneath the image, and a piece of paper with letterpress bearing his title is pasted in the top right corner. The woodcut pasted to the back of the panel is a bookplate with the coat-of-arms of the Electors of Saxony by Lucas Cranach and was first used in the Wittenberger Heiligthumsbuch (Wittenberg Reliquary Book).

[cda 2020]

Attributions
Workshop Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lucas Cranach the Elder

Attributions

Workshop Lucas Cranach the Elder

[British Museum online database: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_SLPictures-271; accessed 28.05.2020]

Lucas Cranach the Elder

In 'List of Portraits' ... (1842, 1879) it is described as 'Limning of Frederick III of Saxony by Lucas Cranach the Elder'
[British Museum online database: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_SLPictures-271; accessed 28.05.2020]

Production date
1532

Production date

1532

[dated]

Dimensions
Dimensions of support: 20.5 x 14.5 cm

Dimensions

  • Dimensions of support: 20.5 x 14.5 cm

  • [British Museum online database: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_SLPictures-271; accessed 28.05.2020]

Signature / Dating

Artist's insignia at the left side: serpent with elevated wings, facing right and dated '1532'; in black paint

Signature / Dating

  • Artist's insignia at the left side: serpent with elevated wings, facing right and dated '1532'; in black paint

Inscriptions and Labels
  • on a separate piece of paper pasted in the upper right corner, three lines of letterpress: 'friderich der Drit …

Inscriptions and Labels

Inscriptions, Badges:

    • on a separate piece of paper pasted in the upper right corner, three lines of letterpress:

  • 'friderich der Drit / Chur- // furst und herzog zu // Sachssen'

    • beneath the image sixteen lines of letterpress in rhyming couplets:

  • 'fridrich bin ich billich genand ...Von dem nicht wand gonst noch gelt.'

    • on the reverse of the panel:

  • a woodcut bearing the Saxon coat of arms

Stamps, Seals, Labels:

  • Recto: - top left corner in black paint '55'

  • Verso:

    • on the backing of the (twentieth-century) frame is annotated on a piece of paper by Campbell Dodgson: 'There is another version of this painting with the same lettering in type in the Augsburg Gallery // and yet another at Rheims'

  • [British Museum online database: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_SLPictures-271; accessed 28.05.2020]

Owner
British Museum
Repository
British Museum
Location
London
CDA ID
UK_BM_SLPictures-271
FR (1978) Nr.
FR-none
Persistent Link
https://lucascranach.org/en/UK_BM_SLPictures-271/

Provenance

  • 1753 bequeathed by Sir Hans Sloane
    [British Museum online database: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_SLPictures-271; accessed 28.05.2020]

Exhibitions

London 2017, G90a

  • Portrait of Frederick III of Saxony, 1532

Images

Compare images
  • overall
  • reverse

Citing from the Cranach Digital Archive

Entry with author
<author's name>, 'Portrait of Frederick III of Saxony', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/UK_BM_SLPictures-271/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})
Entry with no author
'Portrait of Frederick III of Saxony', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document, entry or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/UK_BM_SLPictures-271/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})

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