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Robert Nanteuil

Frédéric-Maurice, Duc de Bouillon

Maker

Robert Nanteuil (French, 1623-1678), designer

Title

Frédéric-Maurice, Duc de Bouillon

Year

1600s

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

engraving

Supports

Dimensions

Plate: 38.7 x 29.2 cm (15 1/4 x 11 1/2 inches)

Identification

State

state vi

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Bequest of Isaac C. Bates

Object Number

13.1217

Type

Publications

  • Books

The Brilliant Line: Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650

Renaissance engravings are objects of exquisite beauty and incomparable intricacy that are composed entirely of lines. Artists began using this intaglio process in Europe as early as 1430. This captivating catalogue focuses on the height of the medium, from 1480 to 1650, when engravers made dramatic and rapid visual changes to engraving technique as they responded to the demands of reproducing artworks in other media. The Brilliant Line follows these visual transformations and offers new insight into the special inventiveness and technical virtuosity of Renaissance and Baroque (Early Modern) engravers. The three essays discuss how engraving’s restrictive materials and the physical process of engraving informed its visual language; the context for the spread of particular engraving styles throughout Europe; and the interests, knowledge, and skills that Renaissance viewers applied when viewing and comparing engravings by style or school.

Exhibition History

The Brilliant Line
Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650
Sep 18, 2009 – Jan 03, 2010

Label copy

Robert Nanteuil obviously studied works by the Rubens school and Goltzius in addition to Mellan, deciding to strictly regulate Rubens’s emphasis on overall tone, and to temper Goltzius’s assertive, sculptural line. To create continuous tone, Nanteuil applied astonishingly regular flicks over the surface of the image, a system that breaks down only at the microscopic level (and that anticipates the visual language of a halftone print, a mechanically reproduced image). Swelling lines intimate the advance of shadow onto raised areas (like the lips, or pupils), meeting at imperceptible tips where the burin was removed from the plate.

Frederic-Maurice de la Tour d’Auvergne, Duc de Boullion (1605-1652) was prince of the independent principality of Sedan and a general in the French royal army. Although he conspired against the French troops in 1641, he was later won over by Cardinal Richelieu, First Minister to Louis XIII, with the promise of high office and compensation for the cessation of his lands.

Image use

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Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Robert Nanteuil (French, 1623-1678), designer
Frédéric-Maurice, Duc de Bouillon, 1600s
Engraving
Plate: 38.7 x 29.2 cm (15 1/4 x 11 1/2 inches)
Bequest of Isaac C. Bates 13.1217

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