Cardinal Richelieu
Medium
engraving
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.6558
Art Historical Context
This 1657 engraving by Robert Nanteuil captures Cardinal Richelieu, the powerful French statesman and chief minister to King Louis XIII. Created after a design by the Baroque painter Philippe de Champaigne, the print preserves the cardinal’s dignified presence long after his death in 1642. As part of the Rosenwald Collection at the National Gallery of Art, it represents a key example of seventeenth-century French portraiture made widely available through print. Nanteuil specialized in engraving, a medium prized for its ability translate painted portraits into precise, reproducible images usin...