Portrait of Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous

In 1531 Johann Friedrich of Saxony was 28 and still only the heir. That year his father, the elector John, helped found the Schmalkaldic League, the defensive alliance of Protestant princes and cities against the Catholic emperor. The son would inherit the electorate and his place in that alliance the following year. Cranach had served the family as court painter for a quarter of a century by then. Look at the jewel hanging from the chain on the prince's chest. The Louvre identifies it as a whistle. The panel is beech, and tree-ring dating shows the wood came from a tree felled around 1523, which fits the date 1531 painted on it next to Cranach's mark, a winged serpent.