Portrait_of_Henry_IV,_Duke_of_Saxony

<i>Portraits of Henry IV of Saxony and Catherine of Mecklenburg</i>

Portraits of Henry IV of Saxony and Catherine of Mecklenburg

Paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder

The Portrait of Henry IV of Saxony and Catherine of Mecklenburg are a matching pair of full-length portrait paintings by the German Renaissance master Lucas Cranach the Elder, dating from 1514, now in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Germany.

Quick Facts Portrait of Henry IV of Saxony and Catherine of Mecklenburg, Artist ...

The work was Cranach's first official portrait,[1] and depicts Henry IV, Duke of Saxony and his wife Catherine of Mecklenburg at about life-size. They are among the earliest northern full-length portraits. Both wear lavishly decorated clothes and decorations recalling their families' coat of arms.

Henry, painted with his hunting dog, is portrayed in the act of drawing his sword. Catherine's panel contains a cartouche with Cranach's initials, the year of execution and a winged snake, the symbol of the painter's workshop.

References

  1. [1]
    Zuffi, Stefano (2005). Il Cinquecento. Milan: Electa. ISBN 88-370-3468-7.

Sources

Stub icon

This article about a sixteenth-century painting is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Portrait_of_Henry_IV,_Duke_of_Saxony, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.