Moscow in the Sixteenth Century

The artwork

In the meadow in the foreground, between the bison and the horsemen, walks an ox with long, slender horns: it is an aurochs, the wild ancestor of our cattle, and the last of its species died 52 years after this print. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, with a handmade frame.

Sigismund von Herberstein, the emperor's ambassador who went to Moscow in 1517 and 1526, had already had an aurochs and a bison engraved: his account of Muscovy, published in 1549, was for a long time the West's primary source on Russia. In the 1556 edition, the two beasts have captions that call ignorant those who mistake them, and the plate repeats them in German. The last known herd of aurochs lived in the Jaktorów Forest in Poland; the last female died there in 1627.

The city plan comes from Herberstein: Braun and Hogenberg reproduced it in the second volume of the Civitates orbis terrarum, published in Cologne in 1575, engraved on copper. Moscow is viewed from across the river, with its rows of houses enclosed by walls, and the cartouche at the bottom right warns that it is twice as large as Prague and has wooden houses. To the right, on the frozen river, run horse-drawn sledges and some men with skis on their feet; in the foreground pass the horse archers of the Muscovite army. The copy is preserved in the David Rumsey Map Collection.

In a study or above a bookcase, it invites close inspection, and it is a gift for anyone who has lived in Moscow or is studying its language. And at the bottom, next to the bison, the aurochs still walks.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 40 x 60 cm
With frame: 42 x 62 cm
Material: artwork printed on the finest handmade Amalfi paper with deckle edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass