Frontispiece to "Les Gardes Françaises"
1632
Medium
Etching; undescribed first state before letter
Dimensions
Sheet (trimmed): 7 7/16 × 4 1/2 in. (18.9 × 11.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1957
Accession Number
57.584.2
Tags
Art Historical Context
Abraham Bosse's *Frontispiece to "Les Gardes Françaises"*1632) invites visitors into the disciplined world of France's elite royal guard during the reign of Louis XIII This etching captures soldiers armed with early firearms and swords, their poised figures emblematic of military prowess in an era of escalating European conflicts like the Thirty Years' War As a frontispiece—a decorative title page for a book on the Gardes Françaises, the king's prestigious infantry regiment—it sets a tone of grandeur and, reflecting the era's fascination with martial glory. Bosse, a leading French printmaker ...
About the Artist
Abraham Bosse · 1602–1676
Abraham Bosse (1604–1676) was a French printmaker and theorist whose approximately 1,600 etchings provide an unparalleled visual record of 17th-century French life. Born to Huguenot parents in Tours, he trained in Paris under Melchior Tavernier and became a devoted follower of Jacques Callot's technical innovations. Bosse's meticulous etchings depicted subjects ranging from daily life and fashion ...