2190
Winterauktionen 24.–25.11.2023
Mayer, Peter
1718 St. Blasien - 1800 Freiburg i.Br.
Illumination of the Münsterturm (cathedral tower) of Freiburg on the occasion of Marie-Antoinette's bridal journey.
Copper engraving on paper. Signed in the plate lower middle and dated 1770. Verso on the back of the frame inscribed by hand with the work's data well as an article of the Badische Zeitung.
H 54,5, W 41 cm (sheet). Gilt frame.
Marie-Antoinette's bridal journey from Vienna to Versailles to meet her future husband Louis XVI, when she was 14 years old, produced numerous pompous festivities along her route. When she arrived in Freiburg i.Br. on 5th May 1770, the Münsterturm (cathedral tower) was illuminated with thousands and thousands of burning clay lamps with «chimical fire». The then abbot of the monastery of Sankt Märgen, Michael Fritz, wrote that the tower had «[...] come out extra beautifully and seemed like [...] falling fiery cone sugar». It is Marie-Antoinette's last night on Austrian territory. The next day she crosses the Rhine and gets newly dressed - in French clothes. In fact, Freiburg hoped that the marriage would lead to a reconciliation between France and Austria and seal the peace between the two countries in the long term. The rare print with historical background amazes with its almost modern appearance of «the most beautiful tower in Christendom». Abbot Michael Fritz quoted in: Peter Kalchthaler, Wie ein feuriger Zuckerhut, in: Badische Zeitung, 22.10.2007.
Provenance: private collection Black Forest.

Condition report