There are fifteen paintings in the collection associated with the name Lucas Cranach (I and II); one was acquired in the 17th Century, one in the 18th Century and the remainder in the 19th Century. Prince Albert particularly admired Cranach, acquiring ten works, partly as an example of early German art and partly as the court painter to his ancestors, the Electors of Saxony, one of whom appears in this portrait.

This is a version of a much-repeated posthumous portrait (there are examples in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, and the Regensburg Museum of History), often with the inscriptions which appear here. The date (1532) and artist’s pictogram appear to the left; the sitter’s title to the right ‘Elector and Duke of Saxony’ and some rough panegyric verses written on paper stuck to the panel surface across the bottom. They translate as: ‘I am rightly called Friedrich (Friedlich means ‘peaceful’), for I maintained a beautiful peace in my domain through great wisdom, patience and luck, and against the wiles of many arch villains. I graced the lands with buildings and founded a new university at Wittenberg in Saxony that became known throughout the world, for out of the same came God’s Word and did great things in many places. It destroyed the papal empire and brought back the true faith. They elected me emperor, but my old age protested, so I chose Emperor Charles and neither favours nor money could dissuade me'.