Emperor Maximilian I

Dürer's portrait of Emperor Maximilian I from 1519 was painted from life during the Imperial Diet at Augsburg, shortly before Maximilian's death in January 1519. Dürer had maintained a relationship with the Habsburg emperor since 1512 — Maximilian commissioned elaborate woodcut projects including the Triumphal Arch and the Triumphal Procession — and receiving a pension from him in 1515. This panel portrait, made the same year as the emperor's death, captures Maximilian in old age with honest directness. When Maximilian died, Dürer lost his imperial pension and had to travel to the Netherlands in 1520-1521 to seek confirmation from the new emperor Charles V, a journey documented in his remarkable travel diary.

Dürer's meticulous technique renders every detail of the fur collar and the emperor's aging features with characteristic precision, while the warm background and pomegranate add symbolic richness to the regal image.