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' |
- 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/
