3754 - Kaspar Merian, "Knightly Head Race"

Kaspar Merian, "Knightly Head Race" depicting, in numerous small scenes, the nine events of the jousting tournament in Frankfurt am Main in 1658, featuring Germans, Hungarians, Muscovites, Swiss and free knights, mostly on horseback; the caption beneath the illustration reads “Actual illustration and description of the procession for the Knightly Head Race (...)”, sheet from the *Theatrum Europaeum*, copperplate engraving on paper in several sections and with standard folds, 1658, signed in the lower right-hand corner of the print “Casp. Merian delineavit et fecit”, minor imperfections, framed in a passe-partout behind glass, passe-partout dimensions approx. 25.5 x 72 cm. Artist information: also known as Caspar M., a prominent German topographical copperplate engraver and publisher (1627 Frankfurt am Main - 1686 Waltha Castle, West Friesland), descended from the Frankfurt branch of the Merian family of copperplate engravers, originally from Basel, son and pupil of Matthäus Merian the Elder; whilst working for his father, he spent time in Paris and Nuremberg; following his father’s death in 1650, he continued to run his father’s publishing house together with his brother Matthäus the Younger, which remained in operation until 1727, In 1672, on medical advice, he retired to Wertheim; in 1677, he joined the Labadists and moved to Waltha Castle in West Friesland (Holland). Source: Internet, Thieme-Becker and the Internet.