Mary, Queen of Scots
Medium
Stipple and etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 6 1/2 × 4 3/16 in. (16.5 × 10.6 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Susan Dwight Bliss, 1958
Accession Number
58.549.167
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate stipple and etching print, *Mary, Queen of* and created by Scottish engraver John Kay in1791, captures the Tudor-era monarch in a compact 6½ × 4⅜-inch sheet. Kay, renowned for his witty miniature portraits and caricatures of society, here turns to historical portraiture, evoking the enduring fascination with Mary Stuart (1542–1587), the Catholic queen whose life of intrigue, imprisonment, and execution by her cousin Elizabeth I inspired countless artworks and legends. The medium blends etching's precise lines—created by acid biting into a metal plate—with stippling's dotted shad...