Portrait of Ferdinand I

The sitter is shown in strict profile, almost like a head on a coin, and he was 21 when this was painted in 1524. He is Ferdinand of Habsburg, then archduke of the Austrian lands and later Holy Roman Emperor, the younger brother of Charles V. A few years earlier the two brothers had divided the family inheritance, and the Austrian half had fallen to Ferdinand. His painter, Hans Maler, worked in Schwaz, a Tyrolean town made rich by silver mines that helped bankroll Habsburg ambitions. Ferdinand was his most important patron and ordered portraits of himself and his wife again and again. The plain profile, set against a flat green ground, keeps every bit of attention on the young ruler's face.