ELSÄSSER, Sigmund
(d. ca. 1587)

Kolowrat Wedding

1580
Copperplate etching with watercolour on paper
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Sigmund Elsässer was a court painter of Archduke Ferdinand II. He recorded pageants, weddings, and other court festivities.

The so-called Kolowrat Wedding was carried out in copperplate etching, painted with watercolour, with explanatory text and captions printed in Gothic script. It depicts the tournament events arranged on the occasion of the marriage of Johann Lipsteinsky of Kolowrat with Katharina of Payrsberg, which took place from 14 to 16 February 1580 in Innsbruck. Although it deals with the marriage of a courtier - Kolowrat was the chamberlain of the Tyrolian sovereign, Archduke Ferdinand II - the Archduke used the occasion to stage these events as a triumph in the style of the courtly festivals of the era. He made them into a demonstration of his sovereign and dynastic authority and documented them through a series of prints. The printing was executed by the court painter Elsässer in accordance with the imperial printing privilege by Hans Baur (Johannes Agricola) in Innsbruck.