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Fireworks For The Emperor. A New Hand-Colored Impression Of Sebald Beham’S “Military Display In Honor Of The Visit Of Emperor Charles V To Munich”, Alison Stewart, Nicole Roberts

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

A little studied Einblattdruck, or single-sheet woodcut, from the sixteenth century shows early incendiary devices used to honor the entry of the Holy Roman Emperor in 1530. The large woodcut displays the military honors given to the emperor: cannons firing on a castle constructed for the occasion and fireworks. Harnessing the potential of powders for both pyrotechnics and color added by hand to prints was among the many cultural developments of the sixteenth century. This article makes known a recently rediscovered impression of the print, unique with hand coloring, which serves as the focus of discussion for several aspects …