Chess Gustavus Selenus by Tot_By

Last crawled date: 2 years, 12 months ago

The model can be reduced to the desired scale of the map of Gustavus Selenus. In the autumn of 1598, the youngest son of the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg August continued its two-year tour of Italy. He kept a diary, and among the many impressions of the beautiful cities of Italy a special place is Venice, which he visited three times. It is here that the noble traveler bought "a book about the ingenuity and art of chess" — an Italian translation of the famous work of the Spaniard RUY Lopez.
Having carefully considered his purchase, August decided to create a book about chess for his countrymen. Dream came true: in 1616 in Leipzig published the book "Chess or the Royal game". A major part of it is the translation of the work of Lopez, but there's also information about the history and status of chess in Europe (first mentioned in the chess village Streak) and even — in the distant Muscovy: "the Russians, or Muscovites, playing chess is very witty and with special diligence; in this game they are so skilled and experienced that, in my opinion, other people a hard time with them to compete" (Paul Dearborn, 1581).
Originating during the late Gothic and the emergence of the Baroque, the pieces absorbed the peculiar Gothic style aspiration, underlined openwork ornamentation, and dynamics, the combination of reality and illusion, the fluidity of complex curvilinear forms characteristic of the Baroque. "The upper part of the figures is crowned with the symbolic skeleton, in a way that the Almighty death is laughing at chess game" — contemporaries described chess Selenus. This is a favorite subject of the middle ages: on the Board, kings and pawns, and before death all are equal!
"Selenus" cut from wood and bone, was cast from silver and gold, and the famous Venetian virtuosos even blown wine glasses from glass. Over the years, the shape of the figures underwent little change. So, in the XVIII century delicate rosettes sometimes grind heavier — with this option the Germans called the "crow's nest"...