Portrait of Cleophea Krieg von Bellikon

Hans Asper created this portrait of Cleophea Krieg von Bellikon in 1538. Zurich’s artistic production, which had flourished in the Late Gothic period, came to an abrupt end at the hands of iconoclastic Reformers. The City Council decided in 1524 to remove all images from Zurich’s churches, since the new creed considered religious effigies idolatrous, vestiges of superstition. For two centuries, only portraits, still lifes and a very few decorative landscapes were in demand, or indeed permitted, in Zurich.