Margrave Christopher I of Baden with His Family in Adoration before Saint Anne Selbdritt

Margrave Christopher I of Baden had the relatively young Baldung immortalize his large family praying together in harmony. The painter, later a leading representative of the Renaissance in the Upper Rhine region, gathers them together in devout postures around Saint Anne with Mary and Jesus, under whose protection the Margrave seeks to place them. The reality was different: the recent unification of the Margraviate of Baden was in danger of breaking up because two of Christopher’s sons rebelled against the succession laid down by their father. The consequence was the division of the Margraviate in 1533.