In short

Our beautiful Northern Renaissance portrait of a man dates, judging by the clothing, around 1550/1555. It shows characteristics of both Flemish-Dutch and German portrait painting.

Ludger tom Ring the Younger had lived in Münster until 1553. That year he moved to Antwerp until 1568, when he settled in Braunschweig. Apparently Ring, who had been a pupil of his homonymous father, had already before 1553 come into contact with portrait painting from the Low Countries; maybe he had studied under a Netherlandish master.

With much sense for psychology our painter has delivered here a portrait of great physical likeness, which his patron must have been very happy with.

About Ludger tom Ring II

Germain painter
Münster 1522 - 1584 Braunschweig

Portrait and still life painter of flowers and of animals.

Son and pupil of Ludger tom Ring the Elder (circa 1496 - 1547). He was a portrait painter in Münster, who must have trained in the Netherlands. 

Younger brother of Hermann tom Ring (1521 - 1596), who remained active as a painter in Münster. It is thought that both Hermann and Ludger the Younger not only received their instruction from their father, but also in the Netherlands.

Our Ludger the Younger joined in 1547, after their father’s death, until 1553, Hermann’s studio in Münster. Both brothers travelled during the 1540s to Holland and to England.

According to Jochen Luckhardt our painter was active in Antwerp between 1553 and 1568. In 1569 he settled in Brauschweig (Brunswick), where he remained until his death in 1584. Here he specialised in portraying the local nobility of Lower Saxony.

In contrast to his father and to his elder brother, who were Catholics, Ludger the Younger proclaimed himself a Protestant.

About our portrait

Ludger tom Ring the Younger’s earliest portrait is the self portrait of 1547.

Our portrait seems also to be a fairly early work, probably dating from his early Antwerp years, around the middle of the 1650s. Its Flemish precise naturalism tempers its German sturdy linearism. It shows the influence of the Antwerp portrait painter Willem Key. The background must have pleases his Humanist sitter: a trompe l’oeil drapery with a Renaissance column decorated with a Corinthian acanthus design.

About the religeous and political situation during the German Renaissance

During the 16th century the Holy Roman Empire was a patchwork of mostly small states and principalities in Central Europe (present-day Germany, Austria and the Bohemian part of Czechia) under the leadership of the Habsburg empire. The Italian Renaissance culture found its way here rather slowly. 

Thanks to the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg around 1440 there came an enormous output of books and documents. Humanism concentrated here upon the study of the Bible, be it in Latin, Greek or Hebrew, much more than on the study of Antiquity. This critical research resulted in the Protestant Reformation, launched in 1517 by Martin Luther: the texts prevailed over any human or institutional authority. Luther protested against the sale of indulgences, challenged the Church and the Pope and therefore also the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

This religious revolution, aiming at the purification of the Church, splintered the Holy Roman Empire intelectually, politically and military, triggering persecutions and wars. Within the German lands many local princes and dukes had chosen Protestantism above Papal Catholicism and above their allegiance to Emperor Charles V. 

In 1555 the Peace of Augsburg ended the struggles between Catholics and Protestants: Lutheranism was officially accepted and rulers were allowed to choose in the future between Lutheranism or Roman Catholicism. In 1556 Charles V abducted: the Spanish crown, the Duchy of Milan and the Spanish Netherlands went to his son Philip II, the crown of the Holy Roman Empire to his brother Ferdinand I. The Council of Trent, held between 1545 and 1563, was the final answer of the Catholic Church to Protestant Reformation. It led to the Counter-Reformation.

Why should you buy this painting?

Because of the of the quiet peace that emanates from such a subtle Humanist portrait.