Art Institute of Chicago

Portrait of Magdalena of Saxony, Wife of Elector Joachim II of Brandenburg

Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472–1553)LinkedCulture matchlcp-a38e74af5bec

Date: c. 1529
Medium: Oil on panel
Culture: Germany
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Institution: Art Institute of Chicago
Object ID: 87760

As court painter to the electors of Saxony, Lucas Cranach the Elder developed a portrait style that catered to his patrons’ concern with dynastic continuity by emphasizing their princely status through careful depictions of their sumptuous garb and lavish jewelry. The artist’s attention to such details enabled the identification of this sitter: a signet ring in a companion portrait of her husband in the Philadelphia Museum of Art reveals her to be the Saxon princess Magdalena. A watercolor showing Magdalena in the same richly patterned dress suggests that Cranach made this portrait during his visit to Berlin around 1529.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line: Gift of Kate S. Buckingham
Provenance: Gustav Fincke, Bamberg; sold, Bamberg, Sept. 11 or following, 1865, no. 8, to Buchner, Bamberg, with a portrait now identiable as the sitter’s husband Joachim II of Brandenburg [Frimmell 1891]; sold, Lepke, Berlin, June 3 or following, 1891, no. 831. Ament collection, Bamberg; sold, Bangel, Frankfurt, Apr. 9, 1894, no. 109. Alexis Schönlank, Berlin; sold, Lempertz, Cologne, Apr. 28–29, 1896, no. 35, to Sedelmeyer, for 2650 marks [According to a copy of the Schönlank sale catalogue in the R.K.D., The Hague, annotated by Abraham Bredius, who characterized both portraits as old copies. At this sale, the male portrait went to Knoedler’s, New York; it is now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art].; Galerie Sedelmeyer, Paris, from 1896 to at least 1900 [see Galerie Sedelmeyer 1900]. Demotte Galleries, New York, by 1920 [See San Francisco 1920; Registrar’s records also list Countess Miranda as a former owner of the picture, although the basis for this is unclear]. J. Vigouroux, New York [according to registrar’s records]. Kate S. Buckingham (d. 1938), Chicago, by 1924 [according to a shipping order dated Dec. 1, 1924, Art Institute Ar-chives]; be-queathed to the AIC, 1938.

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Object type: AAT300033618

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