Duvet Studying the Apocalypse
1555
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 29.6 × 21 cm (11 11/16 × 8 5/16 in.); Sheet: 30.3 × 21.9 cm (11 15/16 × 8 5/8 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
4389
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Jean Duvet portrayed himself as John the Evangelist in this frontispiece to the Apocalypse. He holds an engraver’s burin and has inscribed his name on the arched, copperplate-like tablet at his left: “Jean Duvet, goldsmith of Langres, aged seventy, has completed these histories in 1555.” Duvet’s attribute is not the eagle, but rather a menacing swan. Swimming toward him with an arrow in his beak, the bird and the ship of the three Fates above it bear ill tidings: “Death is upon me and my hands t...
About the Artist
Jean Duvet · 1485–1570
Jean Duvet (1485–after 1562), a pioneering French goldsmith and engraver from the provincial heartlands of Dijon and Langres, emerged as the first significant printmaker in France. Born to a Dijon goldsmith, he trained in the family trade and rose swiftly, becoming master of the Dijon Goldsmiths' Guild by 1509. Duvet's early career blended goldsmithing with engraving; no specific teachers are docu...