Grégoire Huret

Grégoire Huret worked primarily from his own inventions. A member of the French Academy, he wrote a treatise on perspective and optics in 1670. Pictorial stability dominates his engraving language. Layers of hatching form perpendicular grids at angles that avoid the moiré effect. The result is a surprisingly polished image that is also stylized, and less naturalistic than that of Robert Nanteuil. Huret used etched lines to reinforce contours and create ornament. His integration of the two techniques would become the norm for printmakers after about 1650.

This allegorical homage to Cardinal Richelieu, Louis XIII’s chief minister, probably coincided with his (self) appointment as Grandmaster, Chief, and Superintendent General of Navigation and Commerce in 1626. Richelieu, represented here by his coat-of-arms, was responsible for centralizing France’s disparate governing factions and paving the way for absolutist rule.