Edouard Molé
ca. 1653
Medium
Engraving; second state of three (Petitjean & Wickert)
Dimensions
Sheet: 11 3/4 × 8 3/16 in. (29.8 × 20.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Louise Bechtel, 1958
Accession Number
58.580.16
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the mid-17th century, engraver Robert Nante crafted this striking portrait of *Edouard Molé*, around 1653. Nanteuil, one of the finest reproductive engravers of his era, served as the official portraitist to King Louis XIV, capturing the likenesses of nobility, clergy, and officials with remarkable precision. Edouard Molé, a Parisian magistrate and procureur général of the Parlement de Paris, the era's intellectual elite during the early years of the Sun King's absolutist rule—a time when such portraits served as both personal commemoration and symbols of social status. This engraving, 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...