Triumphal Arch (woodcut)

The Triumphal Arch (also known as the Arch of Maximilian I, German: Ehrenpforte Maximilians I.) is a 16th-century monumental woodcut print, commissioned by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. The composite image was printed on 36 large sheets of paper from 195 separate wood blocks. At 295 × 357 centimetres (116 × 141 in), it is one of the largest prints ever produced, and was intended to be pasted to walls in city halls or the palaces of princes. It is part of a series of three huge prints created for Maximilian, the others being a Triumphal Procession (1516–18, 137 woodcut panels, 54 metres (177 ft) long) which is led by a Large Triumphal Carriage (1522, 8 woodcut panels, 8 × 1.5 feet (244 × 46 cm)); only the Arch was completed in Maximilian's lifetime and distributed as propaganda, as he intended. Together, this series has been described by art historian Hyatt Mayor as "Maximilian's program of paper grandeur". They stand alongside two published biographical allegories in verse, the Theuerdank and Weisskunig, heavily illustrated with woodcuts.

Very large multi-sheet prints designed to decorate walls were a feature of the early 16th century, although their use in this way means their survival rate is exceptionally low. The prints were intended to be hand-coloured, but only two sets of impressions from the first edition survive with contemporary colouring (held in Berlin and Prague).

The architectural form of the arch was designed by Tyrolean architect and court painter Jörg Kölderer, and elaborated by Maximilian's court historian and mathematician Johannes Stabius, modelled on the triumphal arches constructed by Roman Emperors in Ancient Rome (although Maximilian's arch was never intended to be constructed in stone). It may have been inspired by a six-panel woodcut "View of Venice", a bird's-eye view of Venice designed by Jacopo de' Barbari and published by the Nuremberg publisher Anton Kolb, both of whom entered the employ of Maximilian from about 1500. Detailed drawings for the woodcuts were created between 1512 and 1515, mainly by Albrecht Dürer and his pupils, Hans Springinklee and Wolf Traut; the flanking round towers are attributed to Albrecht Altdorfer.

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