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Original fileImperator Caesar Divus Maximilianus Pius Felix Augustus
About This Work
The Emperor is depicted in three-quarter profile wearing a large, wide-brimmed hat adorned with a religious medallion. He wears a heavy, patterned robe and the ornate collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, featuring its characteristic ram's fleece pendant. A scrolled banner at the top of the print contains his imperial titles in formal Latin script.
Maximilian I was a central patron of the Northern Renaissance who fostered an intellectual court culture where humanism and esoteric interests met. He maintained close relationships with scholars such as Johannes Trithemius and commissioned complex works like the Triumphal Arch, which utilized symbolic and hieroglyphic languages to communicate imperial power and mystical lineage.
Inscriptions
Imperator Caesar Diuus Maximilianus Pius Felix Augustus
Translation
Emperor Caesar Divine Maximilian Pious Fortunate Augustus
Connected Texts
Johannes Trithemius
Maximilian was a patron of Trithemius, who dedicated his works on cryptography and angelic communication, such as 'Polygraphia', to the Emperor.
Hieroglyphica of Horapollo
Maximilian's commissions, including the Triumphal Arch also worked on by Dürer, incorporated 'hieroglyphs' based on this text to create a secret symbolic language for the court.
Provenance & Source
Object
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
paper
height 413 mm x width 322 mm
portrait
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 1, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.