JOHANN GEORGE II—Elector of Saxony This portrait is now called “Portrait of a black man crowned with laurel, holding an olive branch in his hand”It was painted by Albert Eckhout in 1656…Albert Eckhout (c.1610–1665) was a Dutch portrait and still life painter…From at least 1648 to 1652 he lived in Amersfoort before moving to Dresden, where he spent ten years (1653 to 1663)
as a painter at the court of the elector of Saxony, Johann Georg II…Johann George II was the Elector of Saxony from 1656 to 1680…He belonged to the Albertine line of the House of Wettin…The House of Wettin is a dynasty of German counts, dukes, prince-electors and kings that once ruled territories in the present-day German states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia…
The dynasty is one of the oldest in Europe, and its origins can be traced back to the town of Wettin, Saxony-Anhalt…The Wettins gradually rose to power within the Holy Roman Empire…The family divided into two ruling branches in 1485 by the Treaty of Leipzig: the Ernestine and Albertine branches…The older Ernestine branch played a key role during the Protestant Reformation…Many ruling monarchs outside Germany were later tied to its cadet branch, the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha…