About This Artwork

Lucas Cranach the Elder
German, 1472 (?)-1553

Portrait of Magdalena of Saxony, Wife of Elector Joachim II of Brandenburg, c. 1529

Oil on panel
23 9/16 x 16 3/8 in. (59.8 x 41.6 cm)
Painted surface: 23 9/16 x 16 in. (59.8 x 40.6 cm)
Gift of Kate S. Buckingham, 1938.310

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

San Francisco Museum of Art, Paintings by Old Masters, 1920, no. 56, as Sibille of Cleves.

Chicago, Lackritz Jewelers, 1952 (no cat.).

Publication History

H. E. von Berlepsch and Fr. Weysser, Katalog der Sammlung Bu-chner in Bamberg, Bamberg, 1891, p. 81, no. 831 (ill.).

Theodor Frimmel, Kleine Galeriestudien, Bamberg, 1891, p. 94.

Galerie Se-delmeyer, Illustrated Catalogue of the Sixth Series of 100 Paintings by Old Masters . . . being a portion of the Sedelmeyer Gallery. . . ., Paris, 1900, p. 14, no. 7 (ill.).

Salomon Reinach, Répertoire de pein-tures du moyen âge et de la renaissance (1280–1560), vol. 2, Paris, 1907, p. 377, no. 2 (ill.).

Robert Allerton Parker, “The Revaluation of Lucas Cranach,” International Studio 87, 361 (1927), p. 23 (ill.).

Max J. Friedländer and Jakob Rosenberg, Die Gemälde von Lucas Cranach, Berlin, 1932, p. 77, under no. 263; rev. Eng. ed., 1978, p. 133, no. 327, fig. 327.

E. H[einrich] Zimmermann, “Be-iträge zur Ikonographie Cranachscher Bildnisse,” Zeitschrift des deutschen Vereins für Kunstwissenschaft 9 (1942), pp. 42–50, fig. 17.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Masterpieces in The Art Institute of Chicago, 1952, n.pag. (ill.).

The Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection, 1961, p. 109.

Helmut Börsch-Supan, Die Gemälde im Jagdschloß Grunewald, Berlin, 1964, pp. 44, 47.

Eva Bukolská, “A Portrait of Hedwig of Brandenburg-Ansbach,” Museum Studies 5 (1970), pp. 31–37, fig. 1.

Dieter Koepplin and Tilman Falk, Lukas Cranach: Gemälde, Zeichnungen, Druck-graphik, vol. 1, exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Basel, 1974, pp. 291, 751 n. 83, under no. 169.

Günther Schuhmann, Die Markgrafen von Brandenburg-Ansbach: Eine Bilddokumentation zur Geschichte der Hohenzollern in Franken, Ansbach, 1980, p. 87 (ill.).

Ian War-dropper, “Between Art and Nature: Jewelry in the Renaissance,” Museum Studies 25, 2 (2000), p. 7, fig. 1.

Martha Wolff in Martha Wolff et al., Northern European and Spanish Paintings before 1600 in the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 2008, pp. 349-53, ill.

Ownership History

Gustav Fincke, Bamberg; sold, Bamberg, Sept. 11 or following, 1865, no. 8, to Buchner, Bamberg, with a portrait now identiable as the sitter’s husband Joachim II of Brandenburg [Frimmell 1891]; sold, Lepke, Berlin, June 3 or following, 1891, no. 831. Ament collection, Bamberg; sold, Bangel, Frankfurt, Apr. 9, 1894, no. 109. Alexis Schönlank, Berlin; sold, Lempertz, Cologne, Apr. 28–29, 1896, no. 35, to Sedelmeyer, for 2650 marks [According to a copy of the Schönlank sale catalogue in the R.K.D., The Hague, annotated by Abraham Bredius, who characterized both portraits as old copies. At this sale, the male portrait went to Knoedler’s, New York; it is now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art].; Galerie Sedelmeyer, Paris, from 1896 to at least 1900 [see Galerie Sedelmeyer 1900]. Demotte Galleries, New York, by 1920 [See San Francisco 1920; Registrar’s records also list Countess Miranda as a former owner of the picture, although the basis for this is unclear]. J. Vigouroux, New York [according to registrar’s records]. Kate S. Buckingham (d. 1938), Chicago, by 1924 [according to a shipping order dated Dec. 1, 1924, Art Institute Ar-chives]; be-queathed to the AIC, 1938.