Anna Cuspinian

Lucas Cranach the Elder rendered this portrait around 1502 in Vienna, shortly before becoming court painter to the Saxon electors. Anna Cuspinian was the wife of Johannes Cuspinian, a humanist scholar and diplomat who befriended Cranach during his brief Vienna period. The painting forms half of a diptych, with her husband's portrait as its companion piece.

A parrot perches on a tree behind Anna's head, a symbol of chastity and the Virgin Mary since medieval times. The bird's call was thought to sound like "Ave," the angel's salutation. Cranach painted both portraits with unusual landscape backgrounds for the era, showing forested hills and a distant town.

Both panels measure roughly 59 by 45 centimeters and now hang at the Oskar Reinhart Foundation in Winterthur, Switzerland. These early portraits reveal Cranach's skills before his later, more formulaic court work. His friendship with the Cuspinian circle proved formative to his career.