Frédéric-Maurice, Duc de Bouillon
ca. 1655
Medium
Engraving; third state of six [?] (Petitjean & Wickert)
Dimensions
Sheet: 14 15/16 × 11 1/16 in. (38 × 28.1 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Lev Tsitrin, 2000
Accession Number
2000.416.84
Tags
Art Historical Context
This exquisite engraving, *Frédéric-Maurice, Duc de Bouillon* by Robert Nanteuil, dates to around 1655 and captures noble profile of a prominent French military leader and peer of the realm. Frédéric-Maurice La Tour d'Auver (1605–1652) served as a marshal of France during the turbulent Thirty Years' War andde rebellions, embodying the era's chivalric ideals. Nanteuil, one of the finest portrait engravers of 17th-century France, renders him with aristocratic poise, including his coat of arms—a heraldic emblem signaling lineage and status—against a vast sheet measuring nearly 15 by 11 inches. N...
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...