
Art in the Holy Roman Empire

The Judgement of Paris ©
In the sixteenth century, the Holy Roman Empire was a confederation of states roughly equivalent to modern-day Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia. Under the Emperor Maximilian I (ruled 1493 – 1519), whose Triumphal Cart is displayed downstairs, art flourished. The success of Dürer, who lived and worked in the south of the Empire, influenced a generation of artists, including Hans Baldung Grien and Hans Schäufelein, from Dürer’s workshop. The Swiss city of Basel was another centre of production: Hans Holbein the Younger worked as a painter and as a book illustrator for the publisher Johannes Froben, while Urs Graf produced idiosyncratic prints and drawings and ran the city mint.
The Reformation was felt most strongly in the Empire. It was in Wittenberg, under the protection of Frederick the Wise, that Martin Luther first questioned the basis of the established faith, launching a debate across Europe. At Frederick’s court, Lucas Cranach the Elder painted mythological and historical subjects.
Cranach’s elegant nudes and detailed exploration of northern landscape motifs proved popular enough for his workshop to produce numerous versions of such subjects as Lucretia and The Judgement of Paris.
Attributed to a follower of Martin Schongauer (c. 1435/50-1491)
A head of a bearded man wearing a turban
Hans Baldung (1484/5-1545)
Portrait of a Young Man with a Rosary
Circle of Hans Baldung Grien (c.1485-1545)
St Conrad
Hans Schäufelein (1482/3-c. 1540)
St Paul
Melchior Pfintzing (1481-1535)
Theuerdank
Georg Pencz (c. 1500-1550)
Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)
Ulrich Apt the Elder (1460-1532) and workshop
Portrait of a Man and his Wife
Lucas Cranach the Elder (c.1472-1553)
Apollo and Diana
Lucas Cranach the Elder (c.1472-1553)
Lucretia
Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553)
The Judgement of Paris
Attributed to Hans Brosamer (c. 1506-1554)
Portrait of a Man
Attributed to Hans Brosamer (c. 1506-1554)
Portrait of a Woman
Augustin Hirschvogel (1503-53)
The Crucifixion
Erhard Altdorfer (1512-61)
St George and the Dragon
Urs Graf (c. 1485-c. 1528)
A couple embracing on the shore of a lake
Anonymous Swiss Artist, mid-sixteenth century
The Wedding at Cana
Ovid (43 BC-17 AD) Lyons: Jean de Tournes
Metamorphoses
North Italian with English modifications
Pair of symmetrical field spaudlers and vambraces of Henry VIII
North Italian
Part of a set of saddle steels of Henry VIII
Attributed to Eliseus Libaerts (active 1561-1569)
Parade shield
Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515-86)