Tournament on the Occasion of the Festivity of the Marriage
1514/1516
Medium
woodcut
Dimensions
sheet (trimmed to image): 21.9 x 19.6 cm (8 5/8 x 7 11/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Andrew W. Mellon Fund
Accession Number
1968.18.19
Art Historical Context
Leonhard Beck's *Tournament on the Occasion of Festivity of the Marriage (ca. 1514–1516) is a vibrant woodcut capturing the pageantry of a Renaissance tournament held to celebrate a noble wedding. Created in Augsburg, Germany, during the early 16th, this small print (21.9 x 19.6 cm) depicts armored knights clashing in a lively melee, surrounded by spectators in elaborate period attire. Beck, a master of the Northern Renaissance and a key figure in the Danube School, infused his works with dynamic energy and intricate details, blending Gothic traditions with emerging Renaissance humanism. Wood...
About the Artist
Leonhard Beck · 1480–1542
Leonhard Beck (c. 1480–1542) was a prominent painter, draftsman, and woodcut designer active in Augsburg, Germany, during the early Renaissance. Born into an artistic family, he was the son of the miniaturist Georg Beck, with whom he collaborated on two psalters for an Augsburg monastery around 1495. Beck began his training as an apprentice in the workshop of the esteemed Augsburg painter Hans Hol...