ABSTRACT
‘Maximilian loved having his portrait done, although’ usually only in a formal and flattering manner. Undoubtedly the most well-known portrait of Maximilian is by Albrecht Durer who did a sketch in charcoal of the emperor as an old man, just some months before his death, as he appeared at the Reichstag at Augsburg in 1518. There are enough remaining portraits of Maximilian to be able to balance ideal with reality in the plastic image, and to compare it with the literary output, whereby political, recreational and cultural exploits are very evenly divided between myth and reality, fantasy and hard-core fact. By contrast, Maximilian was being brought up as immodestly as his circumstances were modest. Maximilian may be seen as an individualist and opportunist who had merely to uphold the self-satisfied principle in politics: that that which was naturally good for Austria, Germany and Europe was the mere existence of himself and his Habsburg dynasty as its leader and ordained policy-maker.
