Johannes Reuss

Lucas Cranach the Elder rendered this portrait of Johannes Reuss in 1503. The work shows a half-length figure facing right, dressed in a red overcoat with a pomegranate pattern, lined and trimmed with fur. He wears a chaperon and red cap, with gold buttons visible on his sleeves and undergarment. Five rings adorn his fingers, and his hands rest on the pages of an open book supported by a marble balustrade.

The background contains symbolic elements: a dead tree stands beside a group of blossoming trees, with a bird perched on one of the bare branches and two more flying toward it. Scholars believe the subject may be Johannes Stephan Reuss, Rector of the University of Vienna. The portrait formed a pair with one of his wife, now in Berlin's Gemäldegalerie.

Cranach painted this during his time in Vienna, before he became court painter to Frederick the Wise of Saxony and a close associate of Martin Luther. The Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg holds this work, which measures 52 by 39 centimeters.