Keizer Maximiliaan I

The Emperor stands in full plate armor beneath a heavy, ermine-lined mantle, symbolizing his roles as both a warrior and a sovereign. He holds a small shield featuring the imperial eagle in one hand and rests the other on the hilt of a long sword. His head is adorned with a feathered cap encircled by a crown.

Maximilian I was a central figure in the transition to the Renaissance in Northern Europe and a significant patron of humanism and the arts. His efforts to use printmaking for political and mystical self-fashioning established the Habsburg tradition of imperial patronage that culminated in the Hermetic and alchemical court of his great-grandson, Rudolf II.