Johann I (1468–1532), the Constant, Elector of Saxony

Lucas Cranach the Elder and Workshop

1532–33 · Oil on beech, with letterpress-printed paper labels · European Paintings

These posthumous portraits of the Saxon electors Friedrich III, the Wise, and Johann I, the Constant belong to a series of sixty such portrait pairs, ordered by Johann I’s son and successor, Johann Friedrich I, the Magnanimous, when he became elector in 1532. He intended the portraits of his father and uncle to serve as instruments of propaganda. The accompanying laudatory poems emphasize the passage of Saxon electoral preeminence from Friedrich to Johann, thereby implying the legitimacy of Johann Friedrich’s own electorate. Completed in 1533, the extensive series demonstrates the speed and efficiency of which the Cranach workshop was capable.

Artist

Lucas Cranach the Elder and Workshop

Date

1532–33

Medium

Oil on beech, with letterpress-printed paper labels

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Gift of Robert Lehman, 1946