Portrait of Louis I, Count of Löwenstein

Baldung's portrait of Louis I, Count of Löwenstein from 1513 depicts a minor German nobleman whose family held territories in the Odenwald region east of Heidelberg. The Löwenstein counts were part of the lower nobility whose patronage supported artists like Baldung working from regional centers like Strasbourg rather than major imperial or ducal courts. Baldung's portrait combines the direct physiognomic observation of his formation under Dürer with the formal conventions of German aristocratic portraiture—the three-quarter pose, the heraldic elements, the combination of individual likeness with social dignity—creating an image that served both commemorative and social functions. The 1513 date places this in his mature period when his reputation had spread through the Upper Rhineland.

The noble portrait renders the count with precise physiognomic observation and careful attention to his aristocratic costume and bearing.