The Ball (1500): Artwork and History

The Ball (1500) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Master M.Z. German, active 1500-1550.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

In a large reception hall, elegantly dressed couples converse and dance to the music played by performers on an upper balcony. The two figures seated at a table are Albrecht IV of Bavaria and his wife Kunigunde of Austria, suggesting that this print depicts a specific festival that took place in Munich in 1500. While the depiction of three-dimensional space in the print is not convincing, the engraver’s attention to the details of the extravagant costumes successfully convey the courtly pageantry of the festive occasion.

Object facts

• Title: The Ball
• Date: 1500
• Artist attribution: Master M.Z. German, active 1500-1550
• Place of origin: Germany
• Medium: Engraving on ivory laid paper
• Dimensions: Sheet trimmed within platemark: 22 × 31.6 cm (8 11/16 × 12 1/2 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1933.783

Collection credit

Clarence Buckingham Collection

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.