Object Image

The King of Feuereisen and His Only Daughter, from Der Weisskunig

Der Weisskunig (the white king) is a loosely biographical account of the life of Emperor Maximilian I. The text, composed by Maximilian's secretary Marx Treitz-Sauerwein, is accompanied by illustrations by Burgkmair, as well as Leonhard Beck, Hans Schäufelein, and Hans Springinklee, with proofs completed between 1514–16. However, they remained unpublished until the blocks were rediscovered in 1775, at which point they were published as a book in Vienna by Hoffstätter. The first edition was published again in 1799 by S. Edward in London with the French title, "Tableaux des principaux evénemens de la vie et du regne de l'empereur Maximilien I." This edition includes 236 woodcut illustrations.

Credit: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917

Printed 18th century
Woodcut
22.6 x 20.7cm
17.3.1241
Image and text © Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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