MAXIMILIAN I—House of Habsburg Both of these portraits were painted by Albrecht Dürer circa 1508…Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker, and theorist of the German Renaissance…From 1512, he was patronized by Emperor Maximilian I…From 1512, Maximilian I became Dürer’s major patron
…Maximilian I was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death…Maximilian was the son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, and Eleanor of Portugal…In 1501, Maximilian fell from his horse and badly injured his leg, causing him pain for the rest of his life…Maximilian died in Wels, Upper Austria, and was succeeded as Emperor by his grandson Charles V, his son Philip the Handsome having died in 1506…For penitential reasons,
Maximilian gave very specific instructions for the treatment of his body after death…He wanted his hair to be cut off and his teeth knocked out, and the body was to be whipped and covered with lime and ash, wrapped in linen, and “publicly displayed to show the perishableness of all earthly glory”