La contesa dell' aria e dell' acqua : festa à cavallo rappresentata nell'augustissime nozze delle sacre, cesaree, reali M.M. dell' imperatore Leopoldo e dell' infanta Margherita delle Spagne
La contesa dell' aria e dell' acqua is a 1667 Italian festival book published in Vienna by Matteo Cosmerovio, printer to the court, describing an equestrian entertainment for the wedding of Emperor Leopold I and Infanta Margarita Teresa. Its plates show ranks of horsemen in plumed helmets arranged in geometric patterns within an oval field, with a few carriages and a seated building at the top of the last plate. A designer might take from them the idea of choreographed formations, dense crowds of small figures, and the decorative plumes and costume detail of Baroque pageantry.
