Explore the History of this artwork.
The painting was one of the first commissions received from Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, together with the Seven Sorrows Polyptych and the central panel of the  Dresden Altarpiece. Dürer knew the elector during the latter's short stay in Nuremberg in April 1496.
Dürer portrayed the elector again in an engraving in 1524.
Dresden Altarpiece engraving Seven Sorrows Polyptych Frederick III, Elector of Saxony