Portrait of Margarete Stralenberg, née Stalburg

Conrad Faber von Kreuznach, the leading portraitist of Frankfurt am Main in the early sixteenth century, painted Margarete Stralenberg, née Stalburg, in 1526. The Stalburg and Stralenberg families were prominent Frankfurt patrician dynasties. The painting is in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt. 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 demonstrates Faber's precise technique specialized for the Frankfurt patriciate. The careful rendering of costume and headdress documents the sitter's social position within Frankfurt society.