Maximilian I. oder Friedrich III.? Überlegungen zur sogenannten Heinrichstafel in Münster

Abstract

The so-called “Heinrichstafel”, which has been attributed to the “Master of the legend of St. Barbara” (last quarter of the 15th century) and is now in the Westfälisches Landesmuseum (LWL-Museum of Arts and Culture) in Münster, is a triptych depicting some events reported in the biography of Emperor Henry II. Some research studies concerning the scenes represented on the board which are not mentioned in the source, the Vita Sancti Heinrici, and which clearly aim at describing the real political events, have considered these to be a clear reference to the age of Emperor Maximilian I. This study raises the question of whether this second level of interpretation should not rather be referred to Maximilian’s father, Emperor Frederick II. In fact, the coronation scene – that has been so prominently portrayed on the triptych and has no equivalent in the Vita Sancti Heinrici – can hardly be associated with the imperial coronation of Maximilian, which occurred only in 1508 and was not performed by the pope. Moreover, the scene probably contains some crypto portraits of Frederick III and Nicholas V. If this interpretation applies, and even if far from any realistic representation of the scene, the “Heinrichstafel” would in this case contain additional pictorial evidence of the imperial coronation of 1452.