Grüninger Master - Illustrated post-incunabula leaf - Knights Battle in Armor, The Future Race, Republic and Beyond from Virgil's Aeneid, hand colored - 1529

Beautiful woodcut leaf from one of the great German woodcut books of the Renaissance, and the masterpiece of the artist known as the Late Master of the Grüninger Workshop.

VERGILIUS MARO, Publius (70-19 B.C.). Opera. Edited by Crespin and published in Paris, 1529.

Later hand color.

Minor marginal staining.

Dimension 29.5 x 19.7 cm; 

Reference: Adams V-457; Brunet VI:1277; Muther 537; P. Kristeller, Die Strassburger Buchillustration (1888), pp.32-46, no. 99. Fact and Fantasy 12.

This edition is rightly acclaimed for its magnificent series of woodcut illustrations by the anonymous Late Master of the Grüninger Workshop.
The highly evocative woodcuts capture the essence of Virgil's Arcadian and rustic landscapes as well as the epic and frequently violent sweep of the Aeneid.