Wolf Traut’s woodcut, “Bavarian War: Victory at Wenzenberg 1504”, 1515

Wolf Traut (aka Wolfgang Traut) (1486–1520)—printmaker from the workshop of Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528)

“Bavarian War: Victory at Wenzenberg 1504” (aka “Bayerischer Krieg: Sieg am Wenzenberg 1504”; “Sieg der Kaiserlichen über die Böhmen bei Regensburg 1504”; “Defeat of the Bohemians at Menzenbach [Wenzenberg] near Ratisbon [Regensburg] in 1504”), 1515, panel from the series of twenty-one woodcuts constituting the monumental woodcut commissioned by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I: “Triumphal Arch of Emperor Maximilian I” (aka “Ehrenpforte Maximilians I”; “Historical Subjects from the Triumphal Arch”). This impression is from the first German edition, 1517–18.

Woodcut and letterpress with old colouring on laid paper (with many restorations) trimmed along the image borderline on the top and sides, and with three lines of letterpress text below the lower borderline.

Regarding the use of colour on this print, Giulia Bartrum (1995) in “German Renaissance Prints: 1490–1550” (British Museum Press) advises that some of the first edition impressions “have extensive contemporary colour on them” (p. 53).

Size: (sheet) 25.1 x 15.4 cm

letterpress text on banderols: (upper banderole with five lines of Fraktur text): “Im beyrschen krieg vil schlos vnd stet/ …”; (lower banderole with three lines of Fraktur text): “Venedig graif er darnach an/ …”.

Lifetime impression from the first edition (as signified by the verses of the letterpress text).

(Albrecht Dürer Workshop) TIB 10 (7).138 (149) (Walter L Strauss [ed.] 1980, “The Illustrated Bartsch: Sixteenth Century German Artists: Albrecht Dürer”, vol. 10, New York, Abaris Books, p. 232, cat. no. 138[149]).

The British Museum offers a description of this print from the third edition with Latin prose by Benedictus Chelidonius, printed by Hieronymus Andreae in c1520: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1895-0122-721.

See also: https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/15508/DG1935_979_18.

Condition: a strong impression with early (possibly contemporary?) hand-colouring and a collector’s stamp verso. The sheet is in poor condition with many restorations.

I am selling this exceptionally rare woodcut executed as a panel in one of the most important (certainly one of the largest) composite prints from the Renaissance period compromising 195 separate woodcuts, for the total cost of AU$328 (currently US$233.42/EUR199.73/GBP171.35 at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world (but not, of course, any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries).

If you are interested in purchasing this superb (but very damaged) woodcut with early colouring—possibly from the time of printing as the complete multi-panel print was usually coloured—please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold