Equestrian Portrait of the Emperor Maximilian (1508): Art, History and Details

Equestrian Portrait of the Emperor Maximilian (1508) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Hans Burgkmair (German, 1473–1531).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Presented in full profile, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (reigned 1486–1519) and his mount emulate a classical equestrian portrait statue. The Latin abbreviations inscribed at the top of the page describe him as “August Emperor Caesar Maximilian,” a title conceptually equating him with the leaders of the ancient Roman Empire. The two-headed eagle on the banner is the emblem of his dynastic family, the Hapsburgs. This exceptionally rare chiaroscuro woodcut— printed with black and white inks on paper prepared with tinted wash—represents one of the earliest experiments with this technique. Of the two surviving impressions printed on hand-colored paper, this is the only one that is blue.

Object facts

• Title: Equestrian Portrait of the Emperor Maximilian
• Date: 1508
• Creator attribution: Hans Burgkmair (German, 1473–1531)
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Print
• Technique: woodcut, in black and white on paper washed blue
• Dimensions: Sheet: 32.3 x 22.7 cm (12 11/16 x 8 15/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Woodcut
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1950.72

A detail from the museum

Known as "the last knight," Maximilian was an enthusiast of tournaments and hunting; here he wears the type of fluted armor that later would be named for him.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Dackerman, Susan. Painted Prints: The Revelation of Color in Northern Renaissance & Baroque Engravings, Etchings & Woodcuts. University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002.
• Francis, Henry. "The Equestrian Portrait of the Emperor Maximilian I by Hans Burgkmair." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 39, no. 9 (November 1952): 223-225.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.