König Ludwig II. (1506-1526) von Ungarn

Hans Krell portrayed King Louis II of Hungary (1506-1526) around 1522, when the young king was only sixteen. Louis would die just four years later at the Battle of Mohács, fighting the Ottoman Empire. The painting is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The 1520s were a decade of transition, marked by the deaths of Raphael and Leonardo, the shock of the Reformation, and the beginnings of Mannerist experimentation.

The portrait captures the young king with the formal dignity required of royal portraiture. Krell's Central European style renders the sovereign's features and costume with precise, descriptive clarity.