Abstract
Jakob Fugger (1459-1525) was the richest burgher in the Empire and
perhaps the richest merchant-banker in all of Europe. Descended from a
family of Augsburg merchants, he managed a firm that traded in money and
commodities throughout Europe and beyond. As a financial supporter of
the House of Habsburg, he exerted a major influence on European
politics. In 1519, he advanced the funds that allowed Emperor Maximilian
I to pave the way of his grandson, the future Charles V, to the throne.
This portrait of Fugger by Albrecht Dürer was painted during the
Imperial Diet [Reichstag] in
Nuremberg. It shows Fugger as a man of almost sixty.