Prospect eines Theils des Brodmarckts von oben anzusehen in Augsburg. Vue d’une Parthie du Marche au Pain a Augsbourg.

Title

Prospect eines Theils des Brodmarckts von oben anzusehen in Augsburg. Vue d’une Parthie du Marche au Pain a Augsbourg.

Description

View Optique of the brad market in Augsbourg, printed from Carolus Remshard

ca. 1780

Artist

Leizelt

Balthasar Friedrich Leizelt, active 1750–1800, was a German artist and copperplate engraver working from Augsburg. Leizelt produced a series of European and American scenic views at a time when pictures of foreign countries and people were popular and designed for use in optical viewers. As is normal for these prints the series title is a mirror image because optical viewers made use of mirrors which reversed the image. The so-called peep box picture.

Historical Description

Augsburg's peak boom years occurred during the 15th and 16th centuries thanks to the bank and metal businesses of the merchant families Fugger and Welser, who held a local near total monopoly on their respective industries. Augsburg's wealth attracted artists seeking patrons and rapidly became a creative centre for famous painters, sculptors and musicians notably birthplace of : the Holbein painter family. In later centuries the city was the birthplace of the composer Leopold Mozart and the playwright Berthold Brecht. Rococo became so prevalent that it became known as “Augsburg style” throughout Germany.In 1806, when the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, Augsburg lost its independence and was annexed to the Kingdom of Bavaria. In 1817, the city became an administrative capital of the Oberdon, , then administrative capital in 1837 for the district Swabia and Neuburg.