Symbolic Depiction of the Powerful Merchant Jakob Fugger

This wood relief is of miniature size. The opulent architecture of the palace, an Italian Renaissance building shown in foreshortened perspective, is rendered with virtuoso skill. It serves as a backdrop for four figures. Approaching from the left are a woman, bearing the cornucopia of wealth, and a soldier in a uniform suggestive of ancient times, carrying a standard, who symbolizes power. They are coming to pay homage to the man enthroned at the right, to whose rear we see a guard. The enthroned man is none other than Jakob Fugger, who was the wealthiest and most powerful citizen of Augsburg in the 1520s. He presided over the Fugger trading company, which cofinanced the election of Charles V as Holy Roman Emperor in 1519. On the step is the inscription VIS QUIS, meaning “what power”.