The Emperor Maximilian II succeeded his father, Ferdinand I, in 1564 and sought to address the religious divisions within the Habsburg territories in a more conciliatory way than his cousin and son-in-law, Philip II of Spain (1527-98). Maximilian was succeeded by two of his sons: Rudoph II (1552-1612) and (after his death) by Matthias (1557-1619).

Neufchatel trained in his native Antwerp with Pieter Coecke van Aelst; from 1561 until 1573, after which he residence is unknown. This is a version of a three-quarter length portrait of c. 1566 (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, GG 374); that collection also has an autograph circular reduction of this image, nearly identical to this work.

This work is first mentioned in the collection without identification in the Store at Kensington Palace in 1710 (no 87); it appears in the Crimson Damask Cabinet at St James’s Palace in 1720 as a ‘head of Emperor Rudoph’ an identification it retained for nearly three centuries.