Portrait of Emperor Maximilian I

Portrait of Emperor Maximilian I

Artist	Albrecht Dürer
Year	1519
Type	Oil on linden wood
Dimensions	74 cm × 62 cm (29 in × 24 in)
Location	Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The Portrait of Emperor Maximilian I is an oil painting by Albrecht Dürer, dating to 1519 and now at the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna, Austria. It portrays the emperor Maximilian I.

History

In the Spring of 1512, the newly elected emperor Maximilian I of Habsburg sojourned in Nuremberg, where he got acquainted with Dürer. To celebrate the emperor and his house, the artist conceived the large Triumphal Arch woodcut, for which he was rewarded with 100 yearly florins.

The preparatory drawing.

In 1518, during the Diet of Augsburg, Maximilian called Dürer to portray him. The artist met the emperor in the castle and made a pencil drawing of him, from which he later painted the panel portrait. On the drawing's martig, he noted: "Is the emperor Maximilian that I Albrecht Dürer portrayed in Augsburg, up in the high palace, in his small room, Monday 28 June 1518".

The oil panel was completed when the emperor had already died, with some variants from the initial drawing. The latter is now housed in the Albertina, also in Vienna.

Description

The emperor is portrayed from three-quarter on a green background. The arms lie on an unseen parapet coinciding with the lower boundary of the painting, according to the Flemish painting tradition. His left hand holds a large pomegranate, a symbol of cohesion in the diversity and thus of the Holy Roman Empire (the grains representing his subjects).

Maximilian wears a gown with a very wide fur collar and a broad-brimmed dark hat, with a broach in the center. His grey hair crown his aged (Maximilian was 59 at the time) but still aristocratic face.

In the upper left is the Habsburg coat of arms and Golden Fleece chain, near a long inscription in capital characters which resumes the titles and the deeds of the emperor

POTENTISSIMVS. MAXIMVS. ET. INVICTISSIMVS. CAESAR. MAXIMILIANVS/ QVI. CVNCTOS. SVI. TEMPORIS. REGES. ET. PRINCIPES. IVSTICIA. PRVDENCIA/ MAGNANIMITATE. LIBERALITATE PRAECIPVE. VERO. BELLICA. LAVDE. ET/ ANIMI. FORTITVDINE. SVPERAVIT. NATVS. EST. ANNO. SALVTIS. HVMANAE./ M.CCCC. LIX. DIE. MARCII. IX. VIXIT. ANNOS. LIX. MENSES. IX. DIES. XXV/ DECESSIT. VERO. ANNO. M.D.XIX. MENSIS. IANVARII. DIE. XII. QVEM. DEVS/ OPT. MAX. IN. NVMERVM. VIVENCIVM. REFERRE. VELIT

Sources

• Costantino Porcu, ed. (2004). Dürer. Milan: Rizzoli. 

External links

• Page at the museum's website (German)

Albrecht Dürer
Paintings	Portrait Diptych of Dürer's Parents (1490) Portrait of Frederick III of Saxony (1496) St. Jerome in the Wilderness (c. 1496) Portrait of Dürer's Father at 70 (1497) Haller Madonna (c. 1498) Lamentation of Christ (attributed, c. 1498) Portrait of Oswolt Krell (1499) Portrait of Elsbeth Tucker (1499) Seven Sorrows Polyptych (c. 1500) Lamentation of Christ (c. 1500) Adoration of the Magi (1504) Bagnacavallo Madonna (before 1505) Christ among the Doctors (1506) Portrait of a Young Venetian Woman (1505) Feast of the Rosary (1506) Avarice (1507) Adam and Eve (1507) Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand (1508) Life of the Virgin (1510–1511) The Suicide of Lucretia (1518) Portrait of Emperor Maximilian I (1519) Portrait of Jakob Fugger (c. 1520) Portrait of a Man (1521 or 1524) Portrait of Bernhart von Reesen (1521) Saint Jerome in His Study (1521) The Four Apostles (1526) Portrait of Hieronymus Holzschuher (1526) Portrait of Jakob Muffel (1526) Virgin of the Pear (1526)
Self-portraits	Self-Portrait at the Age of 13 (drawing, 1484) Self-Portrait c 1492 (drawing, 1492) Portrait of the Artist Holding a Thistle (1493) Self-Portrait at 26 (1498) Self-Portrait at 28 (1500)
Still life / nature	View of Arco (1495) Three Linden Trees (c. 1494) The House by the Pond (c 1497) Young Hare (1502) Little Piece of Turf (1502) Great Piece of Turf (1503) Wing of a European Roller (1512) Rhinoceros (1516)
Woodcuts and engravings	The Child Jesus Holding the Globe (1493) Dürer's Wife Agnes (1494) The Holy Family with the Dragonfly (1495) The Muse Thalia (1495–96) Angel with a Lute (1497) Apocalypse (1498) Saint Michael Fighting the Dragon (1498) The Four Witches (1497) The Sea Monster (1498–1500) Saint Sebastian at the Column (1500) Visitation (1503) Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate (1504) Knight, Death and the Devil (1513) Melencolia I (1514) Saint Jerome in His Study (1514) Triumphal Arch (1515) Head of a Walrus (1514) Large Triumphal Carriage (1522)
Drawings	Madonna of the Animals (c. 1503) Praying Hands (c. 1508) Portrait of the Artist's Mother at the Age of 63 (1514)
Altarpieces	Dresden Altarpiece (c. 1496–1497/1503–1504) Paumgartner Altarpiece (c. 1500) Jabach Altarpiece (c. 1503–1504) Heller Altarpiece (c. 1508) Adoration of the Trinity (1511)