Louis XIV as a Child
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
sheet: 13 9/16 x 9 1/2 in. (34.5 x 24.2 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1941
Accession Number
41.57.16
Tags
Art Historical Context
This enchanting engraving, *Louis XIV as a Child captures the future Sun King of France in his youthful innocence, rendered by the masterful French engraver Claude Mellan. Created on a modest sheet measuring 13 9/16 x 9 1/2 inches, this print from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department 17th-century portraiture. Mellan, renowned for his virtuoso line work—most famously in his single continuous-line portrait of St. Veronica's veilemploys precise incisions into a metal plate to produce rich tonal contrasts and lifelike detail, a technique that allowed engravings to be rep...
About the Artist
Claude Mellan|Louis XIV, King of France · 1598–1688
Claude Mellan (1598-1688) was a French draughtsman, engraver, and painter who became one of the most innovative printmakers of the French Baroque period. Born in Abbeville to a family of coppersmiths, Mellan rose to become Peintre et Graveur Ordinaire du Roi (Painter and Engraver in Ordinary to the King), achieving recognition for his extraordinary technical mastery. Mellan's artistic significanc...