Emilie of Saxony

Lead, cast, 45.0 mm Ø (including frame), 27.8 g
Obverse:  Bust of Emilie of Saxony facing left, wearing embroidered chemise and low hat with feather. Around, · GOT · VORMAGK · ALLE / DINCK · 1540 (God Is Able To Do All Things, 1540).

Emilie of Saxony (1516-1591), Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach, was the daughter of Heinrich IV, Duke of Saxony. She married Georg the Pious (b. 1484), the future Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansback, in 1533. After two previous marriages had produced no male heir, Georg Friedrich was born in 1539. Georg the Pious died in 1543, and Emilie was legal guardian of her son until 1556. Emilie was a strict Lutheran and actively opposed Catholicism.

Habich records this medal paired with a reverse by a different hand. The identity of the sitter is taken from a later inscription on the reverse of an example in Dresden. Emilie appears with similar attire in a 1535 painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Provenance:

Morton & Eden 87, 15 June 2017, lot 239.

References:

Habich 1929-34, no. 1877

Trusted 1990, no. 185

Pollard 2007 (NGA), no. 691