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Some of the historical figures that Hans Daucher carved on this relief are identified. Riding a horse, whose rich trappings are emblazoned with the arms of the House of Habsburg, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500-1558)leads his retinue across a bridge with laurel-crowned Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519) at his side (symbolically, since Maximilian was recently deceased). Standing behind the two emperors is Maximilian's court jester Kunz von der Rosen; Count Palatine Frederick II rides the horse emerging from the gateway of the bridge tower; and Willibald Pirckheimer, the Nuremberg humanist and friend of Albrecht Dürer, strides among the equestriennes to the right of the tower. In contrast with the orderly procession on the bridge, horsemen and knights struggle to survive in the raging currents of the river below.
ALthough several scholars have offered historical interpretations of the scene, it rather has a more general allegorical significance.
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