Prince Johann of Anhalt
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| Prince Johann IV of Anhalt |
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| Lucas Cranach the Elder Ä. , around 1520 |
| 64.9 x 45.8 cm |
| Grunewald Hunting Lodge , Berlin |
The painting Prince Johann von Anhalt is a work by Lucas Cranach the Elder , which shows Prince Johann von Anhalt as a boy . It is a panel painting on beech wood from around 1520 that is in the painting collection of the Grunewald hunting lodge in Berlin.
description
The 64.9 cm × 45.8 cm portrait shows Johann von Anhalt in a three-quarter view from the left. He wears a cuirass in the manner of a costume harness . The driven out transverse bulges on the arms imitate the costumes of mercenaries . In his left hand he holds a short sword while his right hand is on his hip. The Latin caption in the upper part of the picture reads in translation "A picture of the illustrious young Lord Johann Fürst von Anhalt at the age of 16 years 1520".
The picture was in the possession of the Dukes of Anhalt from the beginning of the 19th century until after the First World War and was in the Gothic House in Wörlitz . In 1958 it was acquired from private ownership in Cologne for exhibition purposes in Berlin . Today the picture is owned by the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg and is listed there under the inventory number DE SPSG GK I30029 .
History of origin
There is a counterpart portrait to the painting of Prince Johann von Anhalt, which also shows Prince Elector Joachim II of Brandenburg at the age of 16 and in full armor. When comparing the images, the differences in rank of the depicted become clear. The image of Johann is artistically less elaborate than that of the higher-ranking electoral prince. The armor from Johann is also less elaborate and he wears less jewelry.
The period in which the double portraits were created can be narrowed down to the period from autumn 1520 to spring 1521. At that time Johann von Anhalt ruled the Principality of Anhalt after the death of his father Ernst von Anhalt in 1516 under the tutelage of his mother Margarethe von Münsterberg together with two brothers. Since he was also under the guardianship of Elector Joachim I of Brandenburg , Johann went to the electoral court in Cölln around 1516 , where he was probably brought up with the same age as the Elector Joachim II.
The double portraits may have been created in Wittenberg in Lucas Cranach's workshop, since no visit to the royal court in Cölln is known to have occurred during the period in which they were created. In contrast, two stays by the young nobles in Wittenberg are documented. They stayed there on January 16, 1520 on their outward journey to the Reichstag in Worms and on their return journey on March 28, 1520.
Comparable images of princes in armor did not appear in the Holy Roman Empire until the second half of the 16th century. With Lucas Cranach the Elder they are singular, with Lucas Cranach the Younger two similar paintings are known. It can therefore be assumed that the double portraits are commissioned, but the client is not known.
literature
- Gerd Bartoschek, Ruben Rebmann, Elke Anna Werner: Cranach and the art of the Renaissance under the Hohenzollern: Church, courtyard and urban culture - An exhibition by the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation in Berlin-Brandenburg in cooperation with the Evangelical Church Congregation St. Petri - St. Marien . Ed .: Foundation Prussian Palaces and Gardens Berlin-Brandenburg, State Museums in Berlin. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-422-06910-7 , pp. 167 .
- Mathis Leibetseder: Elector in armor in: Martin Wrede : The staging of the heroic monarchy: Early modern kingship between chivalric inheritance and military challenge. 2014 ( online )
Web links
- Prince Johann von Anhalt at cranach.org
- Illustration in the catalog raisonné Corpus Cranach under CC-POR-250-001