HANNS LAUTENSACK (1520-1566)

This print is one of two etchings by Lautensack published the Thurnier Buech Warhafftiger Ritterlicher Thaten, one of the earliest printed books on tournaments, published by Raphael Hofhalter in Vienna in 1561, with a text by Hans von Francolin. The second etching depicts a tournament on horseback in the same location, the square in front of the Imperial Palace in Vienna, in exactly the same perspective.
The folds of the sheet, mostly visible verso in the present impression, are due to this large print being published as a fold-out in the book.