Albrecht Dürer created an oil painting titled The Portrait of Emperor Maximilian I in 1519, which is currently on display in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria. Maximilian I is shown in it.
The newly-elected emperor Maximilian I of Habsburg spent some time in Nuremberg in the spring of 1512, where he met Dürer.
The artist created the massive Triumphal Arch woodcut to honor the emperor and his house, for which he was given 100 florins every year.
Dürer was commissioned to create a portrait of Maximilian in 1518 during the Augsburg Diet. The artist met the emperor at the castle and sketched him in pencil before painting the panel picture of him. He wrote on the martig of the drawing: “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 finished with some modifications from the original drawing after the emperor had already passed away. The Albertina, also in Vienna, is presently where the latter is kept.
On a green background, the emperor is shown from the third-person perspective. In keeping with the tradition of Flemish painting, the arms are placed on an invisible parapet that coincides with the lower edge of the work of art.
A big pomegranate, which is a symbol of the Holy Roman Empire and unity in variety, is in his left hand (the grains representing his subjects).
Maximilian is dressed in a dark hat with a brooch in the middle and a broad-brimmed gown with a very large fur collar.
Maximilian was 59 years old at the time, and his gray hair crowned his still-aristocratic features.
The Golden Fleece chain and the Habsburg coat of arms can be seen in the upper left, close to a lengthy, capital-letter inscription that lists the emperor’s titles and accomplishments.
