MAXIMILIAN'S TOMB

Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I died in 1519 and was buried in Wiener Neustadt, but his splendid tomb, planned in great detail (and its sculptures begun) during his lifetime, would not fit in the castle chapel there, so his grandson Ferdinand I built the Hofkirche in Innsbruck to house it in the 1550's. The project took 80 years to complete, employing a huge team of artists including Dürer and Veit Stoss. The tomb itself is huge, faced with 24 exquisite reliefs in glittering white marble framed in black, their designs adapted from Dürer's famous propaganda woodcut for Maximilian, the Triumphal Arch. On top is the kneeling figure of the Emperor, the final touch added by his great-grandson Ferdinand of the Tirol in 1584, seen behind the gilded finials of the wrought-iron screen that wraps protectively around the monument.

Around the tomb stand guard lines of Hapsburg heroes and ancestors, 28 gigantic bronze statues 2.5 metres tall, the first made in 1502 and the last in 1555. Their hulking black shapes contrast strangely with the playful sweetness of the painted putti on the gilded screen. The variety of detail is astonishing: each figure has a different base, like King Albrecht, below right, whose pointed boot stands on a (bronze) piece of voided silk velvet with a fashionable pomegranate pattern.

The church itself, sadly, was damaged by earthquake and rebuilt in tame baroque style in the late 17th century. This now gives the whole arrangement a very odd feeling, as if warriors from another world have invaded the polite church nave. Their armour is by turns terrifying and effeminate, with beautifully-worked details like frolicking dragons, above, or the mask-face on the elbow-piece, below, watching the wearer's back.

The carving of the marble panels, by Alexander Colyn, is unbelievably fine. I like the podgy putto on the left above, mimicking the pose but not the savagery of Maximilian's soldiers as they storm Rovereto. Another armour, right above, has a collar animated with crowds of little children, like some bizarre sci-fi monster. Two swords, below, have supremely elegant hands resting on their hilts. One panel, bottom left, records Maximilian's campaign with Henry VIII of England against their common enemy, the French.