Portrait of Ludwig Anton von Pfalz-Neuburg, Grand Master of the Teutonic Order

The man in armour entered the Teutonic Order in 1679, at 19, and five years later was running it. Ludwig Anton von der Pfalz was a younger son of the Palatine elector, which in that family meant a churchman's career mapped out from childhood. Grand Master of the Order from 1684, Prince-Provost of Ellwangen, Bishop of Worms from 1691, and in September 1683 he rode with the imperial army that relieved the siege of Vienna. He died at Liège in 1694, aged 33. Two things here are unsettled, and the museum says so rather than tidying them away. The old Poggio Imperiale inventory and a study of 1941 give the face to him, while a 1980 catalogue suggested, without insisting, that it is his younger brother Friedrich Wilhelm. The picture goes to Jan Frans van Douven, though the same sheet notes that the series it belongs to came from Douven and his workshop together. The back of the canvas carries its own label in Italian, naming him Prince Palatine and Grand Master of the Teutonic Order. It is not on view, and the gallery's record places it in a store room in the attics.