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George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center
Fenwick Library, MS2FLElizabeth Beckman
Public Domain. There are no known restrictions.
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Matthäus Küsel engravings of scenes from Antonio Cesti's opera Il Pomo d'Oro, drawn by Lodovico Burnacini, C0454, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.
Purchased by Steve Gerber from J & J Lubrano Music Antiquarians in 2011 and 2017.
Processing completed by Elizabeth Beckman in November 2019. EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in November 2019. These items were formerly part of the Performing Arts manuscript materials collection, C0215. The items were purchased separately and were combined into one collection by the processor. Finding aid updated by Amanda Menjivar in June 2023.
Antonio Cesti's opera Il Pomo d'Oro was first performed in Vienna, Austria circa 1666-1667 in celebration of the marriage of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I to the Spanish princess Margherita (Scmidt, 382). The libretto, by Francesco Sbarra, was a retelling and expansion of the Ancient Greek myth of the Judgement of Paris (Schmidt, 383), in which the Trojan prince Paris is asked to judge which of three goddesses, Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite, is the most beautiful. Stage designer Lodovico Burnancini created 23 stage designs for the piece, which took more than 8 hours to perform (Schmidt, 383-384).
Matthäus Küsel (1629-1681) was an engraver from Augsburg, Germany. He at one point served as the Imperial Engraver to the Bavarian Court.
This collection consists of two engravings by German engraver Matthäus Küsel of scenes drawn by Lodovico Burnacini for Antonio Cesti's opera Il Pomo d'Oro. Burnacini designed the sets for the production. According to dealer notes, one engraving is dated circa 1666 and the other 1689. The first engraving depicts Act V, Scene X, with a group of dancers performing onstage in an outdoor scene with a large number of cherubic and godlike figures looking down from the cloudy heavens. The second depicts Act IV, Scene V in the Tempo di Pallade, with a group of figures surrounding a large statue.
The engravings are arranged in chronological order.
The New York Public Library, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The British Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum hold Küsel engravings of Il Pomo d'Oro.
"Matthäus Küsel[.]" The British Museum, accessed June 16, 2023. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG33412.
Schmidt, Carl B. "Antonio Cesti's 'Il Pomo d'Oro': A Reexamination of a Famous Habsberg Court Spectacle." Journal of the American Musicological Society 29, no. 3 (Autumn 1976): 381-412. https://www.jstor.org/stable/830967