Louis-Phélypeaux de La Vrillière
1662
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 12 3/4 × 10 1/8 in. (32.4 × 25.7 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Lev Tsitrin, 2000
Accession Number
2000.416.27
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the opulent era of Louis XIV, the King, Robert Nante crafted this striking 1662 engraving of Louis-Phélypeaux de La Vrillière, a French statesman and Marquis who served as Secretary of State Foreign Affairs. Measuring 12¾ × 10⅛ inches, the portrait captures the subject's noble bearing, complete with his coat of arms—a hallmark of 17th-century aristocratic portraiture that underscored lineage and power. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, this work exemplifies the grandeur of the French Baroque court. Nanteuil, one of France's master engravers (1623–16...
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...