The Tournament

Master MZ

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This lively engraving is the earliest known print depicting a tournament. A small Bavarian coat of arms on the apothecary shop at right, below the inscribed date, suggests that the scene is set in Munich, the seat of the Bavarian court. The central figures on the balcony may be Duke Albrecht IV and his wife, Kunigunde of Austria. Charming details abound, such as the attendant straining to help a fallen knight to his feet and a spooked horse biting an unsuspecting knight from behind, sending his steed into a gallop. The identification of the engraver as the Munich goldsmith Matthäus Zasinger is generally accepted. Yet the aerial view of the scene, the broad composition, and the deftly light and spirited burin work cast doubt on this association, suggesting instead that Master MZ may have been a painter.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art