Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony

Inscribed and dated (in Latin, below portrait): Sacred to Christ. He favored the word of God with great piety, worthy to be revered by posterity forever. Albrecht Dürer made this for Duke Frederick of Saxony, Arch-Marshal, Elector of the Holy Roman Empire; B[ene] M[erenti] F[ecit] V[ivus] V[ivo] MDXXIIII.; (artist's mark at left): AD

Friedrich the Wise was among Dürer's most significant, long-term patrons. This portrait engraving was made a year before the sitter's death after a life study (école des Beaux-Arts, Paris) that the artist drew in Nuremberg in winter 1522/23. Dürer demonstrated his technical mastery by showing the reflection of a window in his sitter's pupils, perhaps denoting the eye as the window of the soul. The Latin inscription that praises Friedrich as a man who "favored the word of God with great piety" attests to the elector's support for the Lutheran cause.