Portret van Matthaeus Wacker von Wackenfels

The sitter is shown in a formal ruff and heavy chain, set within an inscribed oval frame. Above him, the figures of Justice with her scales, Fame with a trumpet, and Minerva with her owl-crested helmet look down upon the scene. The bottom of the print is filled with a rich collection of instruments representing natural philosophy and the arts, including an armillary sphere, a lute, compasses, and various books.

Matthaeus Wacker von Wackenfels was a prominent humanist and diplomat in the court of Rudolf II in Prague, a major center for late Renaissance esotericism and science. He was a close friend and patron of Johannes Kepler, famously providing the intellectual prompt that led Kepler to write his treatise on the geometry of snowflakes.