Cardinal Jules Mazarin
1656
Medium
Engraving; first state of four (Petitjean & Wickert)
Dimensions
Sheet: 12 5/8 × 9 11/16 in. (32.1 × 24.6 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Lev Tsitrin, 2000
Accession Number
2000.416.14
Tags
Art Historical Context
Behold the striking portrait *Cardinal Jules Mazarin (1656), an exquisite engraving by Robert Nante, one of 17th-century France's premier portrait engravers. This first state of four—before later alterations noted by scholars Petitjean and Wickert—measures 12 5/8 × 9 11/16 inches and captures the cardinal in regal profile, adorned with his coat of arms. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, it was generously gifted by Lev Tsitrin in 2000. Nanteuil's mastery shines in the engraving medium, a meticulous intaglio technique where intricate lines are incised in...
About the Artist
Robert Nanteuil · 1623–1678
Robert Nanteuil (1623-1678) was a French portrait engraver, draughtsman, and pastellist who became the preeminent portraitist to the court of Louis XIV. His technical mastery and royal patronage fundamentally transformed the status of engraving in France, elevating it from a mechanical craft to a recognized fine art. Nanteuil stands as the outstanding French portrait engraver of the seventeenth c...