ELSÄSSER, Sigmund

Sigmund Elsässer was a court painter of Archduke Ferdinand II. He recorded pageants, weddings, and other court festivities.

The so-called Kolowrat Wedding was carried out in copperplate etching, painted with watercolour, with explanatory text and captions printed in Gothic script. It depicts the tournament events arranged on the occasion of the marriage of Johann Lipsteinsky of Kolowrat with Katharina of Payrsberg, which took place from 14 to 16 February 1580 in Innsbruck. Although it deals with the marriage of a courtier - Kolowrat was the chamberlain of the Tyrolian sovereign, Archduke Ferdinand II - the Archduke used the occasion to stage these events as a triumph in the style of the courtly festivals of the era. He made them into a demonstration of his sovereign and dynastic authority and documented them through a series of prints. The printing was executed by the court painter Elsässer in accordance with the imperial printing privilege by Hans Baur (Johannes Agricola) in Innsbruck.

Sigmund Elsässer was a court painter of Archduke Ferdinand II. He recorded pageants, weddings, and other court festivities.

The so-called Wedding Festival Book of Archduke Ferdinand II owes its origins to the second marriage ceremony of the Tyrolian nobleman in May 1582 at Innsbruck; the bride was the Mantuan Princess Anna Caterina Gonzaga. The codex contains 106 colour prints of the events of a tournament, which was arranged for the festivities.

Folio 60r of the codex shows a knight on a sledge elaborately decorated with branches and garlands, in which two men in plate armour are concealed.

Sigmund Elsässer was a court painter of Archduke Ferdinand II. He recorded pageants, weddings, and other court festivities.

The so-called Wedding Festival Book of Archduke Ferdinand II owes its origins to the second marriage ceremony of the Tyrolian nobleman in May 1582 at Innsbruck; the bride was the Mantuan Princess Anna Caterina Gonzaga. The codex contains 106 colour prints of the events of a tournament, which was arranged for the festivities.

Folio 51r of the codex shows Neptune, the bearded, trident-carrying sea god, clad in plate armour over clothing made from scales and foliage, gliding over the wave-tops in his clamshell wagon.