Chevaux Tartare

Art Historical Context

"Chevaux Tartare" is a finely detailed engraving by Charles Errard le fils, a seventeenth-century French artist known for his work in painting, architecture, and printmaking. The title, translating to “Tartar Horses,” to the subject of Central Asian horses, animals long admired in Europe for their strength and endurance. Rendered at just 8 by 9 1/8 inches, the print captures the animals with lively movement and careful attention to anatomy, reflecting the period’s growing interest in exotic subjects and natural history. Engravings like this one played an important role in sharing images across Europe before photography. They allowed artists and scholars to study foreign animals, costumes, and landscapes without traveling great distances. Errard’s precise line work demonstrates the technical demands of the medium, where each texture—mane, muscle, and ground—had to be built through controlled incisions on a metal plate. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of Drawings and Prints, this work offers visitors a glimpse into how early modern Europe visualized distant cultures through the accessible art of printmaking.