Details

Provenienz:
Privatbesitz, Süddeutschland.

Description

Portrait painting experienced a heyday in the imperial city of Nuremberg in the second half of the 16th century, significantly influenced by Dutch artists such as Nicolas Neufchâtel (1525/27-1573) and Nicolas Juvenel the Elder (before 1540 – around 1590). Lorenz Strauch continued the Antwerp tradition and soon enjoyed a good reputation as a portrait painter of the urban upper class. In addition to the tasks entrusted to him as head of the painters’ guild, he maintained an extremely productive workshop. Strauch used his monogram, formed from the intertwining of his initials, as a seal of quality and at the same time a “workshop mark”, and it is also seen in the present commissioned portrait. Despite the rigid pose and muted colour palette, Strauch manages to breathe life into the 63-year-old sitter. Paul II von Praun is depicted dressed in a black robe with a finely painted starched ruff. Praun came from the Nuremberg patrician class and achieved fame as the founder of the Praun Cabinet. He inherited an art collection from his father, a merchant working in Bologna, which he expanded to include numerous German and Italian paintings from the 16th century. In his will, Praun decreed that after his death the art collection should be preserved as a legacy and further expanded. It was transferred to the Praunsche Stiftungshaus in Nuremberg after his death, but from 1801 onwards it was gradually sold off and thus dispersed.