BALDUNG GRIEN, Hans
(b. 1484/85, Schwäbisch-Gmünd, d. 1545, Strasbourg)

Ludwig, Count von Löwenstein

1513
Linden panel, 46 x 33 cm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin

Baldung's portraits have an eccentric, loopy authority as seen in the portrait of Ludwig, Count von Löwenstein (1463-1524), which may have faced a lost pendant showing his wife. Later legitimised, Ludwig was the bastard warrior son of Duke Frederick I the Victorious and an Augsburg resident, Clara Tott. At the time of his murder in 1524, he had received titles from and was active as military councilor to Maximilian I.