Pictura oppiduli navali et pedestri prelio expugnati [A mock siege of a fortress on the Danube].

Engr., 38,5 x 49,5 cm, lavish old hand-coloured (vertical folding).

Framed (not studied outside frame).

Rare view of the naval battle, staged on a river arm of the Danube, at the famous Vienna Tournament of 1560. Print attributed (by Nagler) to the Wrocław painter Johann Twenger (1543-1603) and published in Hans Francolin's "Thurnier Buch wahrhafftiger ritterlicher Thaten [...]", a work describing the festivities, tournaments and sham battles arranged for the future Emperor Maximilian II, on occasion of the visit of his father Ferdinand I and his brother-in-law Albrecht V of Bavaria, in June 1560 in Vienna. These tournaments in disguise, staged by the ruling class, and not by seasoned theatre professionals, were one of the roots of modern theatre and opera.
Ref. Nagler IV 493. - Der deutsche Peintre-Graveur, p. 50 (contests the attribution by Nagler). - Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie 7 (1878), p. 247 ("Francolin, Hans von").