Christian II of Denmark (1481–1559)

Christian II of Denmark was a controversial monarch who briefly united the three Scandinavian kingdoms before being deposed in 1523 and spending the rest of his life imprisoned. His connection to Cranach came through his wife Isabella of Austria and through Cranach's extensive work for the Saxon court, which had dynastic connections to Denmark. Portraits of deposed monarchs circulated as political and dynastic documents among their supporters.

The portrait follows Cranach's characteristic approach to male sitters — a precise, slightly linear rendering of the face with careful attention to costume and any insignia of rank, set against a plain ground. The formula is efficient and historically reliable rather than psychologically probing.