The Princely Meal (Die Fürstliche Mahlzeit), from a series depicting the wedding of Wolfgang Wilhelm, Duke of Pfalz-Neuberg, Pfalzgraf, and Magdalena, Duchess of Bavaria, in Munich, 1613 (Plate 7)

Art Historical Context

This etching by Wilhelm Peter Zimmermann captures a lavish banquet scene from the 1613 wedding of Wolfgang Wilhelm, Duke of Pfalz-Neuburg, and Magdalena, Duchess of Bavaria, in Munich. Created the following year as Plate 7 in a commemorative series, “The Princely Meal” records the opulent festivities that marked this important dynastic alliance, with crowds of nobles gathered around an elaborate table. Such prints helped spread news of the event far beyond the Bavarian court. Zimmermann worked in etching, a medium well suited to rendering the lively details of architecture, costumes, and animated figures that define festival imagery. Classified among Prints-Fete, the work belongs to a tradition of documenting royal ceremonies through precise, reproducible images that preserved the grandeur of these occasions for later generations. Acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1953 through the Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, the print offers today’s visitors an intimate window into early seventeenth-century court life and the social rituals surrounding princely marriages. Its modest size—roughly 8½ by 11½ inches—belies the richness of the scene it preserves.