The depicted’s family moved to Carniola from Zurich at the beginning of the 17th century, ascending from burger status to among the nobility. Janez Jakob had earned this promotion through his military service and honors, having paid his way out of French prison and returning back to Carniola. In 1679, at the age of 50, he married his third wife, the young, 22-year-old widow Marija Elizabeta nee Torpezer (NG S 634). To mark the occasion, Widerkhern commissioned the Dutch painter Herman Verelst, at the time living and working in Ljubljana, to paint wedding portraits of him and his bride-to-be. This representative portrait depicts a respected member of the lower nobility making direct eye contact with the viewer. His attire is completed by a wig, called a lion’s mane, while his military service is signaled by the discreetly illuminated epaulets on his shoulders and the sash Wiederkhern is thumbing with his right hand.
Until the second half of the 18th century, the portraits hung in the Widerkhern house at Ciril Metodov Trg 14 as part of the growing ancestral gallery. Thereupon it was taken by his descendants to the castle in Zaprice, and then acquired by Edvard Karl Strahl in Stara Loka in the second half of the 19th century.