Print engraved by Claude Mellan (1598-1688).
This print is part of a suite, representing antique statues belonging to the royal houses, from one of the volumes of the King's cabinet of engraved plates, known as the Cabinet du Roi, which was a sort of illustrated catalog of the royal collections.
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Print engraved by Claude Mellan (1598-1688).
This print is part of a suite, representing antique statues belonging to the royal houses, from one of the volumes of the King's cabinet of engraved plates, known as the Cabinet du Roi, which was a sort of illustrated catalog of the royal collections.
Among the 61 plates from the Statues and busts of the Royal Houses, the first 18 are the work of Claude Mellan (1598-1688), the undisputed master of burin engraving. The prints of Etienne Baudet (1638-1711) show his determination to equal the art of his master. The comparison of the works of the two engravers highlights the genius of Mellan.
A student of Simon Vouet in Italy, Claude Mellan settled in Paris shortly before 1620. An extraordinary engraver, he created and developed the "one-cut" engraving process: a single stroke of the burin composes the motif of his Sainte Face sur le Linge de sainte Véronique as well as his signature and the Latin inscription. This prodigious and totally innovative tour de force made him recognized by Louis XIV whose ordinary engraver he became in 1657 (at the same time as Robert Nanteuil), then engraver of the cabinet of statues and antique busts.
Etienne Baudet is one of the most remarkable engravers of the French 17th century. His exceptional qualities earned him admission to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1675 and the position of engraver to the king. In 1677, he succeeded Claude Mellan in the reproduction of statues and busts after the antique of the royal houses. Also for the King's Cabinet, he realized with Louis de Surugue de Surgis a part of the plates of the Grand Escalier des Ambassadeurs in Versailles.
Modern proof printed from the original plate of the Chalcographie du Louvre.
The Ultimes are prints made from the original etching plates in the Chalcographie collection at the Musée du Louvre before they were put into storage for preservation reasons.
For reasons of preservation, it was decided to stop printing plates engraved before 1848. Before they left the Ateliers to go into the Louvre's reserves, some were printed one last time. These are the last ones. Each print is dated, numbered and stamped, and is sold with a certificate of authenticity, in a limited edition of 10.
This portrait of Agrippina is a representation of an antique marble sculpture in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris. It depicts her coming out of the bath, sitting on a stool with a pensive gaze. She is entirely draped, but her body is not hidden: as she emerges from the bath, the fabric gives a clear view of her arm and leg, thanks to a remarkable interplay of light, shadow and drapery. The reason for her pensive expression is all the more mysterious in that it is not clear whether she is Agrippina the Elder, wife of Germanicus, or his daughter, Agrippina the Younger, mother of Nero.
This print belongs to the series of "Statues et bustes antiques des Maisons Royales", engraved by the Imprimerie Royale at the request of Louis XIV. Produced by Claude Mellan, it reveals the engraver's mastery of the burin technique, in which the hand digs directly into the material using a tool known as a burin.
The king acquired a prestigious collection of sculptures, demonstrating his taste for Antiquity. The collection assembled at Versailles offered a vision of Antiquity recomposed for the glory of the king.
In 1674, he commissioned 27 marble masterpieces, initially designed to adorn the parterre d'Eau at the Château de Versailles.
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