?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
LUCAS CRANACH, THE YOUNGER John Frederick I the Magnanimous, Elector of Saxony.
Woodcut, circa 1550. 332x217 mm; 13 1/4x8 3/4 inches, thread margins. Crowned double-headed eagle watermark. A very good impression of this extremely scarce woodcut, with strong contrasts.
John Frederick I the Magnanimous (1503-1554), the elder son of the elector John the Steadfast, succeeded his father as Elector of Saxony in 1532. He was last elector of the Ernestine branch of the Saxon House of Wettin and leader of the Protestant Schmalkaldic League. His wars against the Holy Roman emperor Charles V and his fellow princes caused him to lose both the electoral rank and much of his territory.
Cranach, the Younger (1515-1586) made several woodcut portraits of John Frederick I as well as several oil painted portraits of the leader, one of which is now in the collection of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Rüstkammer.
Provenance: Joseph Maberly, London (Lugt 1845, lower right recto). Bartsch 141.
