Markgrave Christopher I of Baden with his Family Whorshipping the Virgin and Child

The foundations of the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe collection were laid by the Margraves of Baden. A key moment in the history of Baden's ruling family and their collection is illustrated in the Staatliche Kunsthalle's so-called Margrave Panel by Hans Baldung Grien (1484/85 -1545).

It was commissioned by Christopher I (1453-1527). The painting shows the ruler with his wife, Ottilie von Katzenelnbogen and their 15 children - among them, the sons Philip (in armour), Ernst (behind him on the left at the edge of the painting), and Bernhard Ill (with a beard and mesh cowl) - worshipping the' "Virgin and Child with St. Anne". In 1503, Christopher had chosen Philip (1479 -1533) to be the only heir to the ancestral territory of Baden.

This decision led to an irreconcilable conflict, since the eldest son, Bernhard (1474-1536) and his brother Ernst (1482- 1553) insisted on a divi- sion against the will of their father. Baldung's painting not only proves the highly developed artistic understanding of the Zähringen sovereign, who entrusted this significant commission to the still young artist from Strasbourg. It also shows Christopher and his family at a historical moment, just a few years before the painful fragmentation of the House of Baden, which was to last approximately 250 years (until 1771). Before the family's patron saint, Anne, the familial harmony for which Christopher struggled just as adamantly as he struggled for the unity of his margraviate, is seen here in effigy.

In fact, in 1516, 11 years before his death, the margrave was deposed by his sons, who pushed through their own interests. Philip died in 1533, leaving his inheritance to his two brothers. Ernst founded the Protestant line of the family and settled his residence in Pforzheim in 1535. His successor, Karl II, moved into the newly constructed "Karlsburg" in Durlach in 1565. Bernhard III, however, founded a Baden-Baden branch that converted back to Catholicism, and Philip II (1559 -1588) followed Italian examples, developing the New Palace in Baden-Baden into a splendid residence.