Portrait of Emperor Maximilian I
Portrait of Emperor Maximilian I | |
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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.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Durer%2C_massimiliano_I%2C_disegno.jpg/220px-Durer%2C_massimiliano_I%2C_disegno.jpg)
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 margin, 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, 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 (his personal symbol), a symbol of cohesion in diversity and thus of the Holy Roman Empire (the grains representing his subjects).
According to Stabius's explanation on the Arch of Honour, the symbolism behind the pomegranate is like this, "although a pomegranate's exterior is neither very beautiful nor endowed with a pleasant scent, it is sweet on the inside and is filled with a great many well-shaped seeds. Likewise the Emperor is endowed with many hidden qualities which became more and more apparent each day and continue to bear fruit."[1]
Maximilian wears a gown with a very wide fur collar and a broad-brimmed dark hat, with a brooch 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 gives 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
Comparation with related works of Albrecht Dürer
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer_-_Emperor_Maximilian_I_-_WGA07013.jpg/181px-Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer_-_Emperor_Maximilian_I_-_WGA07013.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Artist_Drawing_a_Portrait_of_a_Man_MET_MM8092.jpg/253px-Artist_Drawing_a_Portrait_of_a_Man_MET_MM8092.jpg)
Katherine Crawford Luber compares the more famous Vienna painting, likely a commission from Maximilian himself, with the Nuremberg version, possibly a processional banner created for the coronation of Charles V. The Nuremberg shows a younger Maximilian with more emphasized symbols of Office and Rule (whereas the Vienna painting does not even show the Order of the Golden Fleece). He is presented in half-length with his hands in a hieratic, axial position.[2]
The intimate meeting with Maximilian "high up in the palace in his tiny little cabinet" seemed to leave an impression on Dürer. Luber opines that the woodcut The draughtsman drawing a portrait he produced later reflected this meeting. The man enthroned was cradling an orb just like Maximilian was holding his pomegranate.[3]
Luber writes:[4]
The significance of Dürer’s Maximilian portraits cannot be divined from their surface appearances alone. An understanding of how Dürer made the versions, repeating a single image, but disguising the repetitions, his crucial to interpretation of the portraits. Dürer’s ability to synthesize the representational, political, and anagogical aspects of portraiture in a single series of productions bears further testimony to his creative genius. In this unique group of portraits — drawing, woodcut, and two paintings – equivalence and variation converge within an unchanging structure as Dürer reveals and masters the complex task of Imperial portraiture.
See also
References
- ^ "Dürer's Monumental Arch of Honor The Monumental Inscription". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
- ^ Luber, Katherine Crawford; Dürer, Albrecht (30 May 2005). Albrecht Dürer and the Venetian Renaissance. Cambridge University Press. pp. 167, 168. ISBN 978-0-521-56288-1. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
- ^ Luber & Dürer 2005, pp. 166.
- ^ Luber & Dürer 2005, pp. 168.
Sources
- Costantino Porcu, ed. (2004). Dürer. Milan: Rizzoli.
External links
- Page at the museum's website (in German)
- v
- t
- e
- List of 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/Lot and His Daughters (c. 1498)
- Lamentation of Christ (Nuremberg) (attributed, c. 1498)
- Hercules Killing the Stymphalian Birds (1500)
- Lamentation of Christ (Munich) (c. 1500)
- Adoration of the Magi (1504)
- Bagnacavallo Madonna (before 1505)
- Christ Among the Doctors (1506)
- Portrait of a Young Venetian Woman (1505)
- Avarice (1507)
- Adam and Eve (1507)
- Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand (1508)
- The Suicide of Lucretia (1518)
- Virgin and Child with Saint Anne (1519)
- Portrait of Emperor Maximilian I (1519)
- Portrait of Jakob Fugger (c. 1520)
- Portrait of Bernhart von Reesen (1521)
- Saint Jerome in His Study (1521)
- The Four Apostles (1526)
- Portrait of Hieronymus Holzschuher (1526)
- Portrait of Johann Kleberger (1526)
- Portrait of Jakob Muffel (1526)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/40/D%C3%BCrer_Alte_Pinakothek.jpg/80px-D%C3%BCrer_Alte_Pinakothek.jpg)
- Dresden Altarpiece (c. 1496–1497/1503–1504)
- Seven Sorrows Polyptych (c. 1500)
- Paumgartner Altarpiece (c. 1500)
- Jabach Altarpiece (c. 1503–1504)
- Feast of the Rosary (1506)
- Heller Altarpiece (c. 1508) (with Matthias Grünewald)
- Adoration of the Trinity (1511)
- Self-Portrait at the Age of 13 (drawing, 1484)
- Portrait of the Artist Holding a Thistle (1493)
- Self-Portrait at 26 (1498)
- Self-Portrait at 28 (1500)
engravings
- List of woodcuts, engravings
- The Holy Family with the Dragonfly (1495)
- The Holy Family with Three Hares (1496)
- 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)
- Great Passion (1497–1510)
- Life of the Virgin (1510–1511)
- Small Passion (1511)
- Knight, Death and the Devil (1513)
- Melencolia I (1514)
- Saint Jerome in His Study (1514)
- Triumphal Arch (1515)
- Rhinoceros (1515)
- Large Triumphal Carriage (1522)
- Portrait of Erasmus (1526)
watercolours
- Young Hare (1502)
- Great Piece of Turf (1503)
- Madonna of the Animals (c. 1503)
- Praying Hands (c. 1508)
- Wing of a European Roller (1512)
- Portrait of the Artist's Mother at the Age of 63 (1514)
- Head of a Walrus (1514)
- The Virgin and Child with a Flower on a Grassy Bench (c. 1503)
- Alte Pinakothek (Self-Portrait) (2000 photograph)
- Dürer (crater)