An Austrian bronze miniature portrait bust of Archduke Maximilian III of Tyrol, attributed to Caspar Gras (1585-1674), circa 1610

clad in ruff collar and armor, the grand cross of the Order of Teutonic Knights embossed on his cuirass, a sash worn over his right shoulder, dark brown lacquer over olive-brown patina, upon associated, waisted marble socle upon porphry and marble base.

Peter Finer (Catalogue of Arms and Armour), 2001,cat. no. 31, illus.

RELATED LITERATURE
Leo Planiscig, Die Bronzeplastiken, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna 1924, figs. 328-329, pp. 203-204.
M. Leithe-Jasper, Renaissance Master Bronzes from the Collection of the Kunsthistoriches Museum of Vienna, 1986, pp. 253-46, cat. nos. 66a-b.
Innsbrucker Bronzeguss 1500-1650, von Kaiser Maximilian I. bis Erzherzog Ferdinand Karl, (exh. cat.) Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck, June 27-October 6, 1996.

Compare the present bust to a nearly identical gilt bust of Maximilian III in Vienna (Planiscig, no. 328 op. cit.), there attributed to Hubert Gerhard, as well as an abbreviated version without shoulders (no. 329) also in Vienna and attributed to Caspar Gras.  The close dependence of Gras on Hubert Gherhard's style renders it difficult to distinguish between their work.  However, Gras's series of Hapsburg Emperors on horseback in the Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna relates to the present bust in facture and detail.  Another, nearly identical bronze bust of Maximilian III (Innsbrucker Bronzeguss, cat. no. 80, p. 276 op. cit.) in a private collection is also ascribed to Gras and dated circa 1610.  The similarity in features of the busts to those on the life-size kneeling statue by Gras of the Archduke on his tomb in Innsbruck is very persuasive.

Maximilian III (1558-1618), son of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II became master of the Order of Teutonic Knights in 1585 and High Master in 1590.  He was Governor for his older brother, Emperor Rudolf II in 1602 after various military pursuits and became ruler in 1612 after Rudolf's death.  Maximilian's interest in sculpture sprang from a desire to emulate his older brother Rudolf II, a great art lover and patron.  Maximilian commissioned a variety of works relating to the history of the House of Hapsburg and a series of statuettes depicting his ancestors since Emperor Rudolf I.

Caspar Gras trained as a goldsmith and from 1600-1602 as an embosser at the court of Archduke Maximilian III in Bad Mergentheim.  He then followed his teacher, Hubert Gerhard, to Innsbruck where he later obtained title of court sculptor and, therefore, most of the court's commissions when Gerhard left for Munich in 1613.  Gras was hailed for his magnificent bronze memorial of Maximilian III (1615-19, Innsbruck St. Jacobskirche) and the monumental Leopold fountain (1623-30) in Innsbruck surmounted by the equestrian statue of Maximilian's successor, Archduke Leopold V (d. 1632).  This equestrian group is usually regarded as the inspiration for the small-scale statuettes of Hapsburgs on horseback (Leithe-Jasper, op. cit. nos. 66a-b).