Excerpt from Catalogue of an Exhibition of Engraved Portraits by Robert Nanteuil (1630-1678): With an Introduction His earliest dated plates, about 1650, show strongly the influence of Claude Mellan. In general they are very quiet in tone, being practically without any deep shadows. The influence of Mellan is to be seen in the fact that the faces are almost entirely shaded with parallel lines, practically no cross hatching being used. The portraits of Ber nard de Foix and Le Bouthillier are examples of this manner. A little later, about the year 1654, his style changed, apparently under the influence of Morin. The general tone of the prints is still quiet, but a change may be noticed in the circumstance that the faces are partly shaded with very short lit tle burin strokes, which was an approach to the stipple method of Morin. The por trait of Dominique de I/igny is typical of this stage. The famous portrait of Nicolas Fouquet would also seem technically to be long to this period, although it bears the date of 1661. It was probably simply a re version to his earlier manner. From this period forward N anteuil seems to have oh tained more and more depth in his shadows, and to have used in the treatment of the faces a mixture of lines with light and very short burin strokes. The master's style steadily became broader and bolder and reached perhaps its culmination about the year 1658 to 1660. The year 1658 is marked by the wonderful portraits of Cambout, Basile Fouqaet, and Jean Loret. In these the treatment is very broad and masterly, more so, perhaps, than at any other period. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.