Artwork
Female Portrait
Female Portrait is a paint painting by the Northern Renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Younger. It dates from 1564 and is held in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The subject is presented simply as a woman, with the composition emphasizing her likeness rather than a specific allegorical or mythological role.
The work depicts a single woman, identified as the main subject of this 1564 portrait by Lucas Cranach the Younger. As a genre portrait, the painting focuses entirely on the female figure without additional narrative elements or symbolic attributes described in the available records. The subject is presented simply as a woman, with the composition emphasizing her likeness rather than a specific allegorical or mythological role.
The piece serves as a representation of an individual female sitter from the mid-sixteenth century, captured on a lime panel.
Technique & Style
The portrait was painted on a lime panel using tempera pigments, a technique typical of Northern Renaissance portraiture. The work measures 83.5 cm in height and 63.5 cm in width, reflecting the modest scale common for private devotional images of the period. The handling of light and the meticulous rendering of the sitter’s clothing demonstrate Cranach the Younger’s adherence to his father’s stylistic conventions while incorporating subtle anatomical precision characteristic of mid‑16th‑century court portraiture.
Legacy
The painting Female Portrait by Lucas Cranach the Younger, completed in 1564 on lime panel, entered the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria and has remained in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien since that time. Its status as a representative example of late Renaissance portraiture contributed to renewed scholarly attention on Cranach the Younger’s oeuvre, influencing subsequent studies of courtly portraiture in Central Europe during the 16th century.
Overview
Created in 1564, this oil painting by Lucas Cranach the Younger depicts a seated woman rendered with the meticulous detail characteristic of the Northern Renaissance. The work is part of the Kunsthistorisches Museum’s collection and exemplifies the artist’s role as a portraitist within the German Renaissance tradition established by his father.
History & Provenance
The portrait has remained in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, where it is displayed as part of the museum’s holdings of Northern Renaissance art. Its attribution to Cranach the Younger aligns with documented works produced during his active period in the mid‑16th century.
Context
Painted during the later phase of the Northern Renaissance, the work illustrates the continuation of the Cranach workshop’s portrait tradition. While his father, Lucas Cranach the Elder, set the stylistic foundation, the younger Cranach maintained the family’s reputation for rendering elite patrons with clarity and elegance.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Lucas Cranach the Younger (German: Lucas Cranach der Jüngere, IPA:; 4 October 1515 – 25 January 1586) was a German Renaissance painter and portraitist, the son of Lucas Cranach the Elder and brother of Hans Cranach.
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