King Arthur
Peter Visacher, ca. 1515
for the tomb of Maximilian I


Arthur, in the view of many historians, was a successful Roman-British general who led his people against invading Saxons in the region of Wales, around the year 500. In the songs of court poets and Sir Thomas Malory's great narrative Le Morte d' Arthur, Arthur, his court in Camelot, and his knights of the Round Table were the very incarnation of the chivalric ideal.