Portraits of Henry the Pious, Duke of Saxony and his
Wife Katharina von Mecklenburg: 1514
by Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lucas Cranach the Elder
German Renaissance Painter and Printmaker
1472 - 1553
The canvas with the double portrait of the couple was divided into two parts and transferred to wood.
Following his visit to the Netherlands in 1508,
Cranach experimented with Italo-Netherlands' ideas of spatial
construction and with monumental nudes, but his true talent lay
elsewhere, as is shown by the splendid full-length portraits of Duke
Henry the Pious and Duchess Katharina von Mecklenburg, which mark the
establishment of his official portrait style. Here, space and volume
are annihilated; magnificent clothes, set off by a featureless backdrop,
are topped by faces reduced to their essential, typical features.
The Saxon princess wears a colorful attire and
head-dress characteristic for German noble women in the beginning of the
16th century.
