Highlights from the print collection
An introduction to the print collection of the Royal Collection
The Triumphal Cart of the Emperor Maximilian
1522 (first Latin edition, published 1523)RCIN 830118
The 'Triumphal Cart' was one of a series of printmaking projects commissioned by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, to promote his person and his rule. It was probably intended for display in communal spaces in Imperial cities, but was not issued until after the Emperor's death in 1519. This impression is of the first Latin edition of 1523.
A bound set of Dürer’s Apocalypse woodcuts was at Kensington by 1728, and in 1762 George III acquired an album of his prints with the collection of Consul Joseph Smith. Individual acquisitions to fill gaps in the collection in the nineteenth century resulted in a fine group of Dürer prints at Windsor, often in excellent condition.