Portrait of Maria Kitscher, Frau von Freyberg (1545): Art, History and Details

Portrait of Maria Kitscher, Frau von Freyberg (1545) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Hans Mielich (German, 1516–1573).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Maria von Freyberg was in the court of Albert V, Duke of Bavaria. However, as Lutherans, the family eventually fell from favor as Catholic political interests consolidated power in Bavaria. Mielich’s work for the Munich court included illustrating an inventory of the duchess’s jewelry, seen in the meticulous attention here to the sitter’s brooches, necklaces, and rings. The diamond and ruby ring on her left index finger would have slid apart to reveal a private message or image underneath the gems.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait of Maria Kitscher, Frau von Freyberg
• Date: 1545
• Creator attribution: Hans Mielich (German, 1516–1573)
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on wood
• Dimensions: Framed: 81 x 62.5 x 8.5 cm (31 7/8 x 24 5/8 x 3 3/8 in.); Unframed: 61.4 x 46 cm (24 3/16 x 18 1/8 in.)
• Collection: P - German before 1800
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1944.88

Collection credit

The Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of the Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection : Bequest of Elisabeth Severance Prentiss, 1944. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1944.
• Francis, Henry. "Paintings in the Prentiss Bequest." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 31, no. 6, pt. 1 (June 1944): 87-89.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.