Engraving Corinthian capitals

This print is from one of the 64 plates illustrating Vitruvius' Ten Books of Architecture, translated by Claude Perrault in 1673. The work, one of the few surviving treatises on ancient architecture, was commissioned by Colbert for the Académie des Sciences, which he had founded seven years earlier...

This print is from one of the 64 plates illustrating Vitruvius' Ten Books of Architecture, translated by Claude Perrault in 1673. The work, one of the few surviving treatises on ancient architecture, was commissioned by Colbert for the Académie des Sciences, which he had founded seven years earlier, in 1666. To illustrate his commentaries and translations, the great engravers of the 17th century were called upon. These included Gérard Edelinck and Sébastien Leclerc. Plate 23, engraved with a burin, illustrates part of chapter I of Book IV, dealing with the three orders, their origin and invention.