bavarikon4UDescription
The observer's gaze wanders over the Main landscape structured by bushes and trees to the chain of hills to the north of Aschaffenburg. While a shepherd boy with a cow and two goats coming from Obernau dominates the scenery in the foreground, Schloss Johannisburg and the old town rise behind the bridge over the Main. The skilful interplay of light and shade and the harmonious original colour have bathed the townscape in a soft evening light that reaches to the horizon. However, the sheet is not only impressive for its artistic quality, but also for its strikingly large format. The copperplate engraving, drawn and etched by Johann Jakob Strüdt (1773-1807), was published by the renowned Mannheim art dealer Dominik Artaria and was intended as a single picture or wall decoration from the outset. The first-class sheet cost 16 guilders and 30 kreutzers at the time and was thus "one of the most expensive articles of the time".