Allegory of Virtues and Vices at the Court of Charles V ca. 1522 Hans Daucher German Early commentators identified some of the well-known historical figures that Hans Daucher carved so precisely on this honestone relief in the year 1522. Riding a horse, whose rich trappings are emblazoned with the arms of the house of Hapsburg, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500 – 1558) leads his retinue across a bridge with laurel-crowned Emperor Maximilian I (1459 – 1519) at his side (symbolically, since Maximilian was recently deceased). Prints and medallions have aided in the identification of other figure
Allegory of Virtues and Vices at the Court of Charles V ca. 1522 Hans Daucher German Early commentators identified some of the well-known historical figures that Hans Daucher carved so precisely on this honestone relief in the year 1522. Riding a horse, whose rich trappings are emblazoned with the arms of the house of Hapsburg, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500 – 1558) leads his retinue across a bridge with laurel-crowned Emperor Maximilian I (1459 – 1519) at his side (symbolically, since Maximilian was recently deceased). Prints and medallions have aided in the identification of other figures. Standing behind the two emperors is Maximilian’s court jester Kunz von der Rosen; Count Palatine Frederick II rides the horse emerging from the gateway of the bridge tower; and Willibald Pirkheimer, the Nuremburg humanist and friend of artist Albrecht Dürer, strides among the equestriennes to the right of the tower.[1] In contrast with the orderly procession on the bridge, horsemen and knights struggle to survive in the raging currents of the river below. The rebellious Reformation leader Franz von Sickingen is one of those who have plunged into the river. On the hills beyond the bridge at left, bowmen emerge from a tent to witness a joust, while on the right riverbank, men and women carouse at a banquet. Several scholars have offered historical interpretations of the scene. Karl Giehlow suggested, for example, that the Turkish knight emerging from a tent is a reference to the conquest of Belgrade in 1521 by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, who continued to threaten the east European kingdoms in the year the relief was carved.[2] Georg Habich saw a theme of imperial triumph over insurgency in the scene, citing the rebellion of German Imperial Knights in Augsburg in 1522, a revolt that would be quelled, however, only in the following year with their deaths.[3] Philipp Maria Halm focused instead on the inscription reading "A Sketch of Virtues and Vices" prominen
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