Robert Nanteuil

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.