Portrait of Friedrich Behaim

Peter Gertner was a German portrait painter active in Nuremberg in the 1520s known for a small group of precisely executed portraits showing awareness of Dürer's innovations and the broader currents of German Renaissance portraiture. This portrait of Friedrich Behaim, dated 1527 and now in the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht, depicts a member of the prominent Nuremberg Behaim family — relatives of the cartographer Martin Behaim, creator of the first surviving globe. The Behaim family's connection to Nuremberg's humanist and merchant community makes this portrait significant for understanding the social world of Renaissance Nuremberg.

Gertner presents Friedrich Behaim with careful physiognomic precision expected of Nuremberg portraiture in Dürer's wake. The face is described feature by feature with deliberate clarity, and the composition follows a standard bust formula with a dark isolating ground.