Albrecht Dürer

1471–1528
Germany

To magnify click on the image

EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN I

1518–1519

Monogram and date 1519

Inscription:

IMPERATOR CAESAR DIVUS MAXIMILIANUS PIUS FELIX AUGUSTUS (Emperor Caesar Divine Maximilian Pious Happy Augustus).

In the bottom, a German inscription:

Der Teur Fürst Kayser Maximilianus ist auff den XII tag des Jenners seins alters im ILIX Jar seligklich von dyser Zeyt geschaiden Anno domini 1519 (Dear Prince, the Emperor Maximilian, parted with this time on the twelfth day of January, aged 59, in the Year of Grace 1519)

Woodcut

550×380 mm

Impression in the Museum collections

Middle of the 16th century

4th plate, second state with the monogram on the bottom right

No watermark

Provenance:

Baryatinsky’s family collection;
Rumyantsev Museum since 1922;
in the Museum since 1924

Inv. Г-38729

Comments:

in Dürer's lifetime, the portrait of Emperor Maximilian was carved in four plates, three of them being just different states of one woodcut. The artist introduced rich ornamental decorations into the fourth one. The impression dates from after the emergence of a large vertical crack, passing through the headwear, the hair and the clothes of Maximilian. It is dated by the condition of the plate (M. 255, IV, 2, a)