Artwork Page for The Battle Against the Blue Company

Details / Information for The Battle Against the Blue Company

The Battle Against the Blue Company

1512–1518

Leonhard Beck

(German, c. 1480–1542)
Culture
Germany
Medium
woodcut
Credit Line
Dudley P. Allen Fund 1960.34
Catalogue raisonné
Schultz 352
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

This woodcut depicting a military campaign is an illustration for Der Weisskunig, or The White King, an autobiography of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (reigned 1486–1519). Written in German, the book takes the form of a courtly romance novel featuring armored knights. The hero, Maximilian, is the White King. The Blue King and his party represent France. Maximilian was the earliest Renaissance prince to extensively use printed images and texts to cultivate his authority and spread his ideology. Der Weisskunig is one of several major print projects sponsored by the emperor and executed by a legion of advisors, authors, designers, and craftsmen.
A vertically oriented woodcut depicts two opposing armies with light skin tones meeting in a battle. In the lower half, archers draw bows toward one another while soldiers behind them hold tall pikes and flags aloft. In the upper center, a stone castle sits on a hill beneath a sky of patterned clouds. Fine, repetitive black lines create dense textures across the ground, the armored figures, and the distant landscape.

The Battle Against the Blue Company

1512–1518

Leonhard Beck

(German, c. 1480–1542)
Germany

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