Emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519) on horseback,
oil on panel, 91 x 64 cm, unframed

Provenance:
art market, France;
Private collection, Vienna

We are grateful to Christof Metzger for his help in cataloguing the present portrait.

Maximilian I on horseback is based on a prototype invented in Augsburg, which follows prints by Hans Burgkmair the Elder. There are close resemblances to the woodcut of 1508, which is printed in the reverse direction, but the painter has replaced the helmet with the open visor and peacock’s feathers by the crown of the House of Habsburg. This type for its part is based on Burgkmair’s design for Maximilian’s equestrian portrait (Albertina, Vienna, inv. no. 22447).

A comparable depiction can be found in the so-called Tournament Book of Maximilian I in the Austrian National Library in Vienna, which dates back to the early seventeenth century, but which is extremely close to comparable examples presumably made in Augsburg, such as the tournament book by Jeremias Schemel, one of the members of a widely ramified Augsburg family of painters, from the late sixteenth century (Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Library). A picture of Maximilian as a huntsman very close in terms of style was painted by Elias Schemel (circa 1550–1611) before 1588 for the Augsburg Marksmen’s Association (Maximilianmuseum Augsburg, inv. no. L 191).