Mary, Queen of Scots
mid-to late 18th century
Medium
Stipple engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 6 5/8 × 5 5/16 in. (16.9 × 13.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Susan Dwight Bliss, 1958
Accession Number
58.549.397
Tags
Art Historical Context
This stipple engraving, created in the mid-to-late eighteenth century, offers a delicate portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots. Rendered through the stipple technique—a method of building tone and texture with countless tiny dots—the print captures the queen’s likeness with soft gradations typical of the period’s reproductive prints. Measuring just over six inches tall, the intimate scale suggests it was designed for personal collections or albums rather than grand display. Mary Stuart (1542–1587) remains one of history’s most compelling royal figures: crowned Queen of Scotland as an infant, brief...