Enigmes Joyeuses pour les Bons Esprits, Plate 6
Medium
Copper engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 1/2 × 5 13/16 in. (11.5 × 14.7 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Mary Oenslager Fund, 2016
Accession Number
2016.360.6
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Enigmes Joyeuses pour les Bons Esprits Plate 6** (ca. 1615) is a delightful copper engraving by Jean Leclerc IV, also known as Jan vanaelbeeck, a Flemish artist active in the early Baroque era. Measuring just 4½ × 5⅞ inches, this intimate print belongs to a series of "Joyful Enigmas Good Spirits," designed to and amuse clever viewers with visual puzzles. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, exemplifies the refined printmaking techniques of Northern Europe, where copper plates allowed for intricate details and multiple impressions. The scene captures men...
About the Artist
Jean Leclerc IV|Jan van Haelbeeck (French|Flemish) · 1555 |1595 –1627 |1635
French, baptized 1560, died Paris, 1622|Flemish, active Paris (and Copenhagen?), ca. 1600–1630, died Paris, ca. 1630