Sebastian Andorfer (1469–1537)

Hans Maler worked as a portrait painter in the mining town of Schwaz, just east of Innsbruck. The Schwaz silver works belonged to the most prosperous in Europe, and Sebastian Andorfer, who is shown in this portrait at the age of forty-eight, was one of its leading officials. As Silberbrenner (refiner of silver) he was responsible for guaranteeing the purity of Schwaz silver, a major source of income for the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand and the Fugger family of Augsburg, whose likenesses Hans Maler also painted.