The Lovers (Master of the Housebook)

After a 1997 restoration it was displayed at the Castle Museum in Friedenstein Palace and an exhibition in 1998 entitled "Jahreszeiten der Gefühle.

The Gotha Lovers and Love in the Late Middle Ages") largely adopted art historian Daniel Hess' identification of the subjects as Philipp I, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg and Margarete Weißkirchner (with whom Phillipp lived after his wife Adriana's death) and his theory that it was commissioned on the occasion of his first pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1484-1485.

[4] Measuring 118 by 82.5 cm,[5] it shows two people lovingly leaning towards each other under two scrolls or banners (which act as 'speech bubbles') and the coat of arms of the County of Hanau-Münzenberg or (if the yellow is accepted as degraded varnish[6]) the Lords of Eppstein.

[9] In an Alemannic dialect of German, it reads: This translates as: It is a promise of fidelity by the couple, which is portrayed in a manner appropriate to their status, showing them in equally rich clothing and exchanging a gold-woven lace.

The promise of fidelity would still have a logical historical reference, however, even if the image is an idealised depiction of late medieval love and not intended to resemble Phillip and his lover.