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Christian I was just thirty-one when he died. His early death left a vacancy on the Electoral throne in Saxony since his eldest son, Christian II, was only eight years old at the time. But Christian I had taken precautions in his will and had appointed guardians for his children in the event of his dying young. The boys became the wards of their grandfather, Johann Georg of Brandenburg, and Duke Friedrich Wilhelm I of Saxony-Weimar-Altenburg, who had been appointed to administer their affairs and whose portrait you see here. It was painted by Zacharias Wehme. Friedrich Wilhelm spent a lot of his time at his residence in Torgau in Saxony. He led an extravagant life there, and when he did have to deal with political issues, he relied on influential counsellors from the era of Elector August.

In this portrait painted by Wehme in Dresden in 1597, Friedrich Wilhelm I, the administrator, exudes self-confidence; it emphasises the dignity and elevated status of his role. He is depicted wearing a blackened suit of armour by Anton Peffenhauser, with a silk sash and a ruffle: the ideal costume for displaying the administrator’s power. The etched golden stripes, which give his harness its clear contours, and the ornamentation of flowers and foliage, are typical of Peffenhauser’s work at that time. The highly polished surface of the metal reflects the light and, even today, the armour, the silk sash and the drapes still seem to glow from within.

This suit of armour no longer exists, and it’s not the only item by Peffenhauser missing from the collections of the Dresden Rüstkammer. In the surviving inventories, a total of thirty-six armours or harnesses for knights and chargers, saddles and interchangeable parts are listed as works by Anton Peffenhauser or are ascribed to him. Today, the Rüstkammer has fourteen complete suits of armour, two horse’s harnesses, seven separate chanfrons to protect the front of the horse’s head, seven cuirasse saddles and more than thirty interchangeable parts by Peffenhauser. They are in excellent condition, since the dynastic line of Saxony was unbroken for nearly four hundred years – from 1547 until 1918. This is in fact the largest collection of armours, anywhere in the world, by Peffenhauser, the most important armourer working in Augsburg in the second half of the sixteenth century.