Bürgersfrau

Peter Gertner, a Nuremberg painter active in the early sixteenth century, created this portrait of a burgher's wife around 1525, now in the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe. Such portraits of middle-class women were increasingly common in German Renaissance art, reflecting the growing wealth and self-confidence of the urban bourgeoisie who wished to commemorate themselves and their families through painted likenesses.

Gertner's precise, linear style reflects his Franconian training, with careful attention to the details of the sitter's headdress, jewelry, and clothing that indicate her social status.