La Course au grand galop ou le Tournoi allemand (Bartsch app. 36), GDUT4241

The etching captures the violent climax of a German tournament, showing one rider remaining steadfast while his opponent and horse are thrown backward in mid-air. Both knights wear heavy ceremonial armor with elaborate ostrich-plume crests, and their horses are draped in highly decorative textile caparisons. The scene is rendered with the energetic, dense line work characteristic of the artist's technical experiments with iron etching.

This work reflects the chivalric culture of Emperor Maximilian I, who transformed the tournament into a theater of virtue and an allegory for the knight's struggle against the unpredictable whims of Fortune. It connects to the Neoplatonic ideal of the 'Miles Christianus' (Christian Knight) and the 'Art of Combat' as a disciplined mastery over physical and spiritual chaos.