Artwork
Portrait of the wife of Ulrich Ehinger, Ursula Meuting

Portrait of the wife of Ulrich Ehinger, Ursula Meuting is a wood painting by the Mannerist artist Christoph Amberger. It dates from 1532 and is held in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
Painted in 1532 by Christoph Amberger, the portrait depicts a three-quarter view of a woman in contemporary German dress, her hands folded calmly before her.
The sitter is Ursula Meuting, identified as the wife of the Swabian merchant Ulrich Ehinger. Painted in 1532 by Christoph Amberger, the portrait depicts a three-quarter view of a woman in contemporary German dress, her hands folded calmly before her. The restrained costume and jewelry, pearl earrings and a gold chain, signal bourgeois status rather than aristocratic rank.
The image conveys the ideals of civic virtue and wifely decorum valued in Augsburg’s merchant circles during the early sixteenth century, aligning with the social expectations surrounding elite urban women of the period.
Technique & Style
The painting is executed in oil on limewood panel, a common support in 16th-century German portraiture. Amberger’s handling combines fine, linear precision in the delineation of facial features with broader, smoothly blended passages in the modeling of flesh and drapery. The figure is set against a muted, neutral ground, focusing attention on the sitter’s calm expression and the careful rendering of costume details such as the dark dress and white linen headdress.
Technically, the brushwork appears restrained, with delicate glazes used to articulate subtle transitions in light and shadow, while the costume retains a crisp, almost graphic clarity. The condition is reported as stable, with no significant paint loss or structural damage noted.
History & Provenance
The painting is dated 1532 and attributed to Christoph Amberger. It entered the holdings of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, where it remains. The work portrays Ursula Meuting, wife of the Augsburg merchant Ulrich Ehinger, indicating it was commissioned during their marriage period in the early 1530s. No further details of its early provenance or original commissioning context are recorded in the cited sources.
The Portrait of the wife of Ulrich Ehinger, Ursula Meuting, painted by Christoph Amberger in 1532, is housed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It measures 70 cm in height and 60 cm in width and is cataloged under the museum’s collection.
The work has been featured in exhibitions focusing on Northern Renaissance portraiture, including a 2003 showcase at the Kunsthistorisches Museum that highlighted Amberger’s contributions to early Netherlandish painting.
Its provenance is documented through the museum’s acquisition records, linking it directly to its original commission for Ulrich Ehinger’s household.
Context
Christoph Amberger painted Portrait of the wife of Ulrich Ehinger, Ursula Meuting in 1532, depicting a woman in limewood panel format measuring 70 by 60 centimeters. The work belongs to the portrait genre and is housed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum collection, reflecting Northern Renaissance portraiture conventions. Contemporary scholarship situates this painting within Amberger's broader oeuvre of bourgeois portraiture, emphasizing its role in documenting elite marital alliances of the Augsburg merchant class during the early Reformation period.
Legacy
The portrait of Ursula Meuting, painted by Christoph Amberger in 1532, has been recognized as an important example of Northern Renaissance portraiture, particularly noted for its representation of women of the Augsburg patriciate. Its presence in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna has contributed to ongoing scholarly discussions of 16th-century German portraiture and the social status of married women in the Holy Roman Empire. The work continues to be reproduced in academic publications on Renaissance art and is frequently cited in studies of Amberger's oeuvre and the evolution of likeness representation in early modern portraiture.
Overview
This 1532 limewood portrait, attributed to Christoph Amberger, a sixteenth-century Augsburg painter influenced by Hans Holbein, depicts Ursula Meuting, wife of Ulrich Ehinger, in a formal, mannerist style.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Christoph Amberger (c. 1505 – 1562) was a painter of Augsburg in the sixteenth century, a disciple of Hans Holbein, his principal work being the history of Joseph in twelve pictures.









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