Martin Engelbrecht (1684 - 1756)

Martin Engelbrecht

Martin Engelbrecht was a German Baroque painter and engraver, publisher, and inventor of the first miniature dioramas.

Martin and his brother Christian were skilled printers and engravers in Augsburg, Germany in the 18th century. Martin's works include illustrations for Ovid's Metamorphoses, The War of the Spanish Succession, P. Dekker's Les Architectes Princiers, 92 views of Venice, and the Assemblage Nouveau Des Manouvries Habilles, a series of engravings depicting laborers and their clothing, published in Augsburg around 1730.

Also around 1730. Martin Engelbrecht created maps for miniature theaters, which, inserted into a display box, showed religious scenes and pictures of everyday life in three-dimensional perspective. He devoted an entire series to Italian theater. These miniature theaters or Engelbrecht dioramas are considered the earliest paper theaters in history, and they became very popular in the 18th century as a means of home entertainment. Engelbrecht is known to have created at least forty-one sets of miniature theater dioramas.