In the double portrait by Bernhard Strigel, probably of Dr Georg Thannstetter (1482–1535) and his wife Martha Werusin (or Merusin), a severely geometrical structure underpins the composition into which the figures are logically integrated. Maximilian I’s court painter probably painted the portraits in 1515 to mark his sovereign’s visit to Vienna for a double wedding that had important dynastic implications.
Dr Georg Thannstetter was a medical doctor, mathematician and cartographer, and he held a chair at the University of Vienna. He had been personal physician to the Emperor Maximilian since 1510. As a humanist, he combined his medical knowledge with astrological research; his role was that of polymath at the imperial court.
The artist’s choice of a half-length figure in three-quarter profile was the usual form for a scholar’s portrait at the time. Strigel also used this format involving the head and shoulders offset against a length of damask with a landscape view to one side in several portraits of Maximilian I. Choice of the same format probably reflects Thannstetter’s self-confidence and the respect accorded to humanists by society. On the other hand, it is also typical of the sixteenth century that no typological distinction is made between rulers and the lower social orders. Strigel uses the background, which forms a uniform space with that in the portrait of Thannstetter’s wife, to show that the two paintings belong together. The couple face in towards each other, their gazes focused on the same point. |
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Oil on panel
height 42 cm, width 29 cm
Inv.-No. GE712
Provenance: recorded in the collection from 1805 (as a work by Hans Holbein) with the Portrait of Martha Thanstetter, née Werusin (also Merusin) (GE714)
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