Heraldic design with two unicorns from Architectvra: Von Außtheilung, Symmetria vnd Proportion der Fünff Seulen (Strassburg, 1598)

Wendel Dietterlin was a mannerist painter primarily active in Strassburg (now Strasbourg) during the last quarter of the 16th century. Though only one of his paintings is known to survive, several large-scale projects are documented, including frescoes for the residence of the bishop of Strassburg and an enormous ceiling and the walls of the same room in the pleasure palace of Duke Ludwig of Württemberg. A sense of Dietterlin's unbridled inventiveness is readily gained from perusal of the 209 etched plates in his Architectvra: Von Außtheilung, Symmetria vnd Proportion der Fünff Seulen, originally issued in two parts in 1593 and 1594, then republished as a single volume in 1598. The over-the-top complexity in Heraldic Design with Two Unicorns from this publication is a fine specimen from one of the greatest compendia of mannerist architecture, and is an engagingly bizarre image.