Recently, an 18th century engraving purchased in the 1950s for the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, was examined as part of the systematic survey and curation of the 28,000 images in the digital archive. This uncolored engraving measures 22.5 x 33.7 cm and is titled: Grausames Verfahren der Türken bei Beschania mit den Oesterreichern. Below the title is a printed key identifying 13 scenes and places such as the Danube, the town of Semlin, and the city of Belgrade.
Depicted is a panoramic view of a battle in countryside between Turks and Austrians, but in addition to the general fighting there are also images of atrocities including Ottomans beheading prisoners near Semlin and Belgrade. One soldier drags a naked prisoner by the hair while another quarters bodies with a sword. Others have been tossed into water to drown. The event represents an apparent incident of the Austro-Turkish War of 1788-1791 and is intended solely as anti-Turkish propaganda.
Prior to the survey, little was know about this image beyond the title. However, research has now uncovered new information. In the Landesarchiv Stubenberg Archive in Germany is a document dating from 1788 which relates directly to this engraving. It reads in translation as follows:
‘A high provincial government has opened today by ordinance of the 16th [June] and the district office of Mahrburg reported this under 13th instant that there was already a copper [engraving] in Mahrburg with the inscription ‘Cruel Procedure of the Turks at Beschania with the Austrians’, which went on sale to the public somewhere between Semlin and the terrible battlefield of Belgrade, where the Turks are presented against the Austrians, which has a very detrimental to the heart of the farmer, and if their recruits or the same are called-up, the consequences would be all the more serious, as in the case of absent militarists those poaching delicacies arising from heated imagination could not be stopped.
Therefore, as a result of the above-mentioned ordinance, the entire advertising district is commissioned by those who may find bookkeepers, picture dealers and shopkeepers in their district to see if the copper or other similar ones are available and to cease its exhibition and sale unframed against threats of appropriate punishment… K. k. District Office Pruck the 24th June 1788. Guido Graf v. Weissenwolff.’
Steirische Miscellen: zur Orts- und Culturgeschichte der Steiermark, Herausgegeben von Josef von Zahn (Graz, verlag von Ulr. Moser’s Buchhandlung, 1899), page 54
Clearly, such propagandist imagery went too far and was considered detrimental for recruiting purposes. As the document notes, a ban was placed on the sale of this engraving, and the district office at Marburg issued a proclamation on June 24, 1788, stating that anyone selling the print would be subject to punishment.