Joust of Two Wild Men on Horseback, ca. 1480

Blatt: 145 x 220 mm

Physical Description: Engraving

Inventory Number: 58217

Object Number: 58217 D

Acquisition: Acquired in 1889

Status: Can be presented in the study room of the Graphische Sammlung (special opening hours)

Texts

About the Work

Here Israhel van Meckenem copied an imaginative drypoint etching by the Master of the Housebook. The “wild people” were fanciful woodland creatures who, covered with fur and endowed with mighty strength, lived close to nature in a counterworld to human civilization. These wild men wear “armour” made of curly leaves, the helmets moreover adorned with radishes and garlic. They parody the knights’ tournaments staged in the fifteenth century as courtly festivals.

Work Data

Basic Information

Title: Joust of Two Wild Men on Horseback

Engraver

Israhel van Meckenem the Younger

Inventor

after Master of the Housebook

Period Produced

15th century

Object Type

art print

Physical Description: Engraving

Material

Vergé paper

Technique

copperplate engraving

Geographic Reference

German

Label at the Time of Manufacture: Monogrammiert in der Platte unten mittig über dem Stein: ° I M °

Captions Added Later: Unten links Sammlermarke William Esdaile, London (Lugt 2617)
Verso Stempel der Sammlung John Griffith, Oxford (Lugt 1464)
Verso Stempel des Städelschen Kunstinstituts, Frankfurt am Main (Lugt 2356), mit zugehöriger Inventarnummer

Watermark