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AFTB 19: Der Weiss Kunig (The White King), 1515

 Item — Item: AFTB 19
Collection number: AFTB19
Der Weiss Kunig (The White King)

Scope and Contents

Framed Medieval wood cut, hand colored. Showing hunters with crossbows and supporting serfs with spears. Produced: Hans Burgkmair. 8 5/8" x 7 3/4" The Weiss Kunig was one of three books commissioned by Emperor Maximillian I (1459-1519). The book chronicles Maximillian’s life and represents his court as an ideal chivalric society. Maximillian is unusual in adopting the woodcut as the medium for large –scale schemes of patronage. Woodcut was cheap and therefore less prestigious than painting or tapestry, but Maximillian was short of money and woodcut also had an advantage of allowing multiple copies to be made for distribution around members of his court. The Weiss Kunig linked Maximillian to prophecies foretelling the coming of a Friedenskaiser (Emperor of Peace). In this image we see a hunt. The Weis Kunig remained unfinished at Maximillian’s death, but proofs survive. There were 236 illustrations planned, with painter Hans Burgkmair, (1473-1531), Maximillian’s chief designer from 1508, designing about half of them. The blocks were cut by Jobst de Negker and a team of assistants between 1514-1516. Large-scale projects like these helped to raise the status of block cutters. Documents survive showing that Jobst de Negker was effectively publisher in overall charge and his assistants were paid an annual salary which worked out six times more for each block than that paid to the designers for each drawing. Caption taken from V & A Images: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O820825/der-weiss-kunig-the-white-print-burgkmair-hans/

Dates

  • 1515

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Extent

From the Collection: 149 items

Language

From the Collection: English

From the Collection: Germanic languages

From the Collection: French

From the Collection: Latin

From the Collection: Spanish; Castilian

Location

On display at Vice President's office, West Hall

Repository Details

Part of the Valdosta State University Archives and Special Collections Repository

Contact:
Valdosta State University Archives, Odum Library
1500 N. Patterson St.
Valdosta GA 30601 United States
7063728116
229-259-5055 (Fax)