A Guardian Angel Rescuing Emperor Maximilian from the Martinswand
by Alfred Rethel
The young emperor is in great danger as he gazes into the abyss. According to a popular Tyrolean legend, Maximilian I (1459-1519) supposedly got completely lost in the mountains while out hunting chamois near Innsbruck. On the third day, as if by a miracle, a mysterious man appeared and led the exhausted monarch back into the valley. Contrary to a previous idea of depicting the rescuer as an angel, Rethel shows him here as a shepherd in a sheepskin, albeit illuminated from behind by a supernatural light.