Publisher/Manufacturer: Gwasg Gregynog (Gregynog Press) Series title: The Romance of Parzival and the Holy Grail (plate 2)
1936 Wood engraving in black on white wove paper
299 x 249 mm. Loan: Gregynog, Davies sisters 1989
Proof taken from the original wood block at Gregynog in 1936. From a set of twelve illustrations for Wolfram von Eschenbach's (d. c.1230) narrative poem 'Parzival'. The blocks for the illustrations were engraved by Mrozewski between September 1933 and June 1934 whilst living in Amsterdam. They were never published in his lifetime. In 1990 Gwasg Gregynog published 'The Romance of Parzival and the Holy Grail', designed by David Esslemont and with an introduction by Carl Lofmark. This proof was reproduced - by offset lithography at Westerham Press, Kent - for one of the illustrations. The volume was published in an edition of 210 at £240. Ten of these had a special binding by James Brockman. Eschenbach's poem was the inspiration behind Richard Wagner's 'Parsival'
Book illustration for the Arthurian legend 'Parzival'; foreground, on the right, grass, two flowers, two hounds and a black horse ridden by a medieval knight who carries a lance, on the left, a bugler holding a standard and two figures attending to the knight's horse; middleground, on the right, a procession of soldiers on horseback with shields, armour, helmets, and lances held upright and topped with flags, on the left and centre, a large castle, with turrets, a castellated wall, round towers and a drawbridge, populated by buglers, soldiers, a bishop and a queen with attendants; background, a heavily wooded landscape with a river and a castle on a hill. Engraved in fine detail in a symbolist / fantasy style with gravers of varied widths