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Original fileTriomfboog van keizer Maximiliaan I
About This Work
Emperor Maximilian I, dressed in ceremonial armor and crown, stands opposite Mary of Burgundy as they jointly support a heraldic shield representing their united territories. Above them, a rhymed German inscription describes the political strategy of expanding the Habsburg domains through this marriage. This scene is one of many historical panels integrated into a massive, multi-sheet woodcut monument designed to celebrate the Emperor's lineage.
The Triumphal Arch is a landmark of Northern Renaissance humanism, representing a synthesis of Roman imperial tradition and the esoteric interests of Maximilian's court. The project’s conceptual framework was developed by humanists Willibald Pirckheimer and Johannes Stabius, who utilized 'hieroglyphic' symbolism and genealogical lore to present the Emperor as a divinely ordained ruler within a Neoplatonic and Hermetic worldview.
Inscriptions(Dutch)
Das man die sach doch recht verstee Ein furstin nam er zu der ee Die erblich tochter von Burgund Des halb erdach ein solichen fund Wie er sein kinden erblich macht Mer furstenthumb mit fryd vñ schlacht
Translation
That one might truly understand the matter He took a princess to be his wife The hereditary daughter of Burgundy Because of which he devised such a find How he might make his children heirs To more principalities through peace and battle
Connected Texts
Willibald Pirckheimer
The humanist advisor who devised the complex symbolic and historical program for the Triumphal Arch for Dürer to illustrate.
Johannes Stabius
The court historian and mathematician who collaborated with Dürer on the structural and ideological design of the monument.
Horapollo
His 'Hieroglyphica' provided the basis for the symbolic 'mystic' language used elsewhere in the Triumphal Arch program to encode the Emperor's virtues.
Provenance & Source
Object
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
paper
height 223 mm x width 150 mm
architectural
Linked Data
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