Maximilian goes digital: From “remembrance” to data storage

Throughout his life, Emperor Maximilian I was concerned with the cultural legacy of his image and his reign – or “remembrance” as he put it. In order to preserve his legacy for posterity, he made use of a variety media – most of them very modern for his time.

Maximilian’s commissioned art in particular bears witness to this. For the 2019 Maximilian celebrations, the City of Innsbruck and the Province of Tyrol are financing a large-scale research project. Three commissioned works relating to Maximilian, from both current and completed commissioned digital works and research projects of the University of Innsbruck, will be made accessible to the general public using state-of-the-art digitisation methods.

This includes:

1. the ‘Ambraser Heldenbuch’ as two-dimensional book art
2. the tomb in the Innsbruck Hofkirche with three-dimensional reliefs
3. the Imperial Monument for the Speyer Cathedral as a commissioned but unfinished figurative work