MALER, Hans

This is the companion-piece of the Portrait of Moritz Welzer von Eberstein, the sitter’s husband.

Hans Maler mainly worked in Schwatz, Tyrol, and painted portraits for merchants and for the Imperial Court in Innsbruck. The inscriptions on this portrait and on its companion-piece, the Portrait of Maria Welzer, n�e Tänzel, depicting his wife, identify the two sitters as a young couple of Carinthian descent.

Queen Anne of Hungary and Bohemia was initially betrothed to Emperor Maximilian I, although she eventually married his brother, the Archduke Ferdinand, in 1521. A few years later, in 1525, she became Queen of Hungary and Bohemia on the death of her brother without heir. This portrait, datable around 1519, is very possibly a commission from the Archduke Ferdinand, for whom Maler worked at the ducal court in Innsbruck.

The sitter of the portrait is Sebastian Andorfer (1469-1537), a top mining official of Schwaz in Tirol. His father held a prominent position in the mining administration at Schwaz, serving as ‘Silberbrenner’ (refiner of silver) from 1470 to 1499. Sebastian assumed the post in 1499 and occupied it until his death in 1537.

A variant of the portrait exists, also dated 1517, in which Andorfer is depicted beardless. The two portraits may exemplify the practice, which can be observed in contemporary medals, of recording a change in appearance for eternity. However, no known biographical events correspond with the 1517 date of the portraits. Furthermore, technical investigations suggest that the execution of the beardless portrait preceded the bearded one.

The two Andorfer portraits stand as the earliest securely dated works in Maler’s oeuvre.

The sitter of the portrait is Sebastian Andorfer (1469-1537), a top mining official of Schwaz in Tirol. His father held a prominent position in the mining administration at Schwaz, serving as ‘Silberbrenner’ (refiner of silver) from 1470 to 1499. Sebastian assumed the post in 1499 and occupied it until his death in 1537.

A variant of the portrait exists, also dated 1517, in which Andorfer is depicted bearded. The two portraits may exemplify the practice, which can be observed in contemporary medals, of recording a change in appearance for eternity. However, no known biographical events correspond with the 1517 date of the portraits. Furthermore, technical investigations suggest that the execution of the beardless portrait preceded the bearded one.

The two Andorfer portraits stand as the earliest securely dated works in Maler’s oeuvre.

The sitter of this portrait was Ulrich Fugger the Younger (1490-1525). He was born into a family that would soon become one of Europe’s greatest mercantile and banking dynasties. His father - Ulrich the Elder - and his uncles Georg and Jacob Fugger together founded a flourishing spice- and textile-trading firm in 1494, which under Jacob’s leadership became immensely prosperous by expanding into mining and finance. The young Ulrich traveled widely in Central Europe as a representative of the Fugger firm. His final station in life was the mining centre of Schwaz in Tirol. It was surely in Schwaz in 1525 that Hans Maler painted the present portrait.

There is an almost identical other version of the portrait in a private collection which was painted later than the version in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Maler’s portraits of Ulrich Fugger represent just one part of his more extensive work for the Fuggers and their close associates in Schwaz, made possible by the increased presence of the Fugger firm in the mining town from 1522 onward. It is conceivable that some were used to decorate the family’s new residence and office in Schwaz, the Fuggerhaus, completed about 1525-28.

The sitter of this portrait was Ulrich Fugger the Younger (1490-1525). He was born into a family that would soon become one of Europe’s greatest mercantile and banking dynasties. His father - Ulrich the Elder - and his uncles Georg and Jacob Fugger together founded a flourishing spice- and textile-trading firm in 1494, which under Jacob’s leadership became immensely prosperous by expanding into mining and finance. The young Ulrich traveled widely in Central Europe as a representative of the Fugger firm. His final station in life was the mining centre of Schwaz in Tirol. It was surely in Schwaz in 1525 that Hans Maler painted the present portrait.

There is an almost identical other version of the portrait in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York which preceded the present version.

Maler’s portraits of Ulrich Fugger represent just one part of his more extensive work for the Fuggers and their close associates in Schwaz, made possible by the increased presence of the Fugger firm in the mining town from 1522 onward. It is conceivable that some were used to decorate the family’s new residence and office in Schwaz, the Fuggerhaus, completed about 1525-28.