Portrait of Emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519),
oil on panel, 43 x 26.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Il Principe della Torre e Tasso Duca di Castel Duino, Italy;
European private collection

The present lively and intimate portrayal of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519) observing a hunt beneath his chambers, can be associated with the work of the versatile Habsburg Court Painter, Jörg Kölderer (circa 1465/70–1540). Maximilian’s patronage of Kölderer resulted in numerous commissions notably, the artist’s miniatures for the ‘Tyrolean Hunting Book’ (dating from 1500, now at the Bibliothèque Royale, Brussels). The landscape of the present painting betrays similarities to Kölderer’s approach to such rugged scenery, as does his handling of the figures. Maximilian was a prolific collector, both of pictures, manuscripts and knowledge of astrology and the natural and ancient world, as evidenced by the antique cameo in his headdress, here depicted, and the scroll he holds in his hand.

The biographical dictionary about the Habsburg dynasty by Brigitte Hamann from 1988 says about Emperor Maximilian I: ‘Astrologers identified Mars as Maximilian’s ascendant, prophesying a “spirit of contradiction” that would make life difficult for him. Looking at Maximilian’s biography, this prophecy can only be confirmed […]. War turned out to be a red thread running through Maximilian’s life. He led twenty-five military campaigns in not even 40 years […]. His first battle was the struggle for the preservation of the Duchy of Burgundy. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Burgundy had risen to enormous economic and cultural wealth. Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy had no male heirs but (along the lines of dynastic thinking) ‘only’ a daughter, Mary of Burgundy, his heiress. After the last Duke’s death, France reached for Burgundy, as parts of its lands were fiefs of the French crown. Emperor Frederick III, Maximilian’s father, succeeded in securing the heiress’s hand for his son. The couple married in Ghent which added Burgundy and Flanders to the existing Habsburg possessions in Germany and Austria, making the family a European superpower. Mary died in a riding accident in 1482, leaving behind her children Philip (later nicknamed ‘the Handsome’) and Margaret. In 1493 Maximilian married Bianca Maria Sforza of Milan, who was rich but unloved. The purpose of this marriage had solely been to fill the empire’s empty money boxes. Hamann: ‘Maximilian was a man living between the times. His knightly ideals and his universalistic ambitions with regard to his notion of imperial dignity are usually regarded as backward-looking. Similarly, one usually associates the “Renaissance” with a rediscovery of antiquity. Maximilian’s medieval “masquerades” and tournaments, for example, are probably another form of Renaissance, a reinterpretation of his own German past […]. In all of his autobiographical books, such as “Weißkunig” [“White King”], one can observe an allegorically and symbolically elevated reality belonging to the medieval tradition, mingled with ideals and dreamlike visions […]. The books betray a great deal of what mattered to this “Last Knight”: adventure, courtly love, honour, loyalty, being a huntsman, warrior, and victor, resting firmly in the hands of God.’