Nikolaus Körbler came from a respected and wealthy mercantile family whose presence in Judenburg can be traced back to end of the 15th century. The sitter ran an extensive business trading in medicinal and aromatic plants. He was also a dealer in vitriol, for which Venice was an important trading centre.

When Sultan Sulaiman threatened Vienna in 1532 Emperor Karl V and King Ferdinand I recruited an army of 80,000 soldiers that moved the Sultan to retreat. The Emperor then continued on to Italy with several contingents. At an audience with Karl V and Ferdinand I held in Unzmarkt, Nikolaus Körbler was recruited into the imperial army. As thanks for his service Karl V ennobled Körbler in Mantua on 20 November 1532.

It was most probably this event that occasioned the portrait commission from Venice-based Paris Bordone. The painting is Bordone’s earliest dated picture. It portrays the merchant in a black, fur-trimmed coat and barret. But despite his new social standing Körbler is pictured without any symbols of rank or honours. It is a bourgeois portrait with a distinguished character. Only a text added at a later date and referring to the Emperor’s Tunisian campaign, describes Körbler as the admiral of Karl V.

The head of a man dressed in black appears behind a parapet. With an alert glance he fixes his eyes upon the viewer. The parapet distances the subject from the viewer, only his hand protrudes slightly over the edge.

This male portrait is one of the most enigmatic of the Renaissance. The dating of 1456 is the only information available. It is not clear who the picture portrays nor who painted it. Names from the Italian, French and German art worlds have been suggested as the painter. The reason lies in the unusual position the picture occupies in 15th century painting.

On the one hand the composition, the carefully painted details of the physiognomy and the light situation point to close familiarity with early Dutch portraits, particularly those of Jan van Eyck. But at the same time the picture achieves a monumentality that is not found in Flemish portrait painting and is more reminiscent of Fouquet.

These characteristics are united in a Flemish painter working in the south of France: Barthélémy d’Eyck, the court painter of René d’Anjou. He was also active in the field of book painting. This explains the precision of his painting technique.

Ladislaus von Fraunberg (1505–1566) was the sovereign ruler of the County of Haag, close to Wasserburg in eastern Bavaria, and the last of his line.

Shortly before this picture was painted Fraunberg married the niece of Duke Ercole d’Este, Emilia Rovella di Pio, in Ferrara. But his mother-in-law had her daughter abducted to a convent and arranged so many attempts to poison and murder the Duke that, finally, he returned home without his wife in 1556.

The following ten years until his death were marked by Ladislaus’ unsuccessful attempts to remarry, in order to save his family lineage. After his death the County of Fraunberg fell to his adversary, Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria.

With great authenticity, Albrecht’s court painter Hans Mielich managed to capture both the quarrelsome nature of his subject as well as his tragic fate. Fraunberg’s Italian adventure is symbolised by the leopard at his side given to him by his brother-in-law.

This picture probably entered the Princely Family’s possession in 1568, through the marriage of the subject’s niece to Hartmann II of Liechtenstein. A 1613 catalogue makes it the longest traceable painting in the Princely Collections.

This picture was long considered a portrait of Guidobaldo I di Montefeltro because an inscription added on the back of the painting at a later date describes the subject of the work as the Duke of Urbino. Today, however, the similarities with portraits known to be of Guidobaldo are not sufficient and the identity of the man in the picture remains a mystery.

The subject of the picture is seen standing in front of a dark parapet above which appears a separate visual area created by the view over a bright, expansive landscape. This landscape section frames the man’s head. The downward glance at the viewer and his noble dress combine to portray a distinguished, consciously distant man who is well aware of his social standing.

In this painting Francesco Salviati depicted an as yet unidentified man, probably a member of the Italian nobility. The young man is dressed in a fine leather jerkin over a slitted red doublet and is wearing a velvet cap. His right hand gingerly caresses the neck of a young deer that trustingly licks the back of his hand. The tame young animal underlines the youth of the sitter, with his delicate facial features.

The three-quarter figure was the most common portrait type during the Renaissance. The hands in such works assume particular importance as an expressive device. The portraits of Francesco Salviati are characterised by a mannerist mobility in the hands that often contrasts with the static pose of the subject.