Fire

Fire dates from 1566, three years after the seasons and two years after Maximilian II became emperor. Every piece of this head is something that burns or makes fire. Flaming wood forms the hair, a candle and an oil lamp shape the neck and chin, and the nose and cheek are made of fire-steels and flints, the little strikers used to raise a spark. Down on the chest sit a cannon and a pair of gun barrels, the most modern fire of the day. The fire-steel was also a Habsburg badge, the emblem of the Order of the Golden Fleece, and the order's chain hangs across the chest with a medallion of the double-headed eagle. The museum calls this the picture in the series that points most openly at the emperor.