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Draft:French engraving in the seventeeth century

French engraving in the seventeenth century was marked by the development of techniques such as etching and burin, and the invention of new techniques such as direct carving or Mezzotint. At that time, France experienced a development of this technique, although the Netherlands dominated the European world of engraving.

Techniques

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Wood carving

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The Holy face, Claude Mellan, 1649, burin engraving, Bibliothèque nationale de France

During the seventeenth century, wood carving (or xylography) faced increasingly intense competition from engraving with a burin, which allowed greater finesse of line. From the beginning of the century, it became rarer in the publishing world, first for science books (from the beginning of the century) and then for fine books (around 1630 for Paris, around 1650 for Lyon). Even though the technique experienced a resurgence in popularity at the end of the century in large-scale productions, the woods used are often reused from the sixteenth century.

Nevertheless, we can highlight the editorial project of Guillaume Desprez, a printer near Port-Royal. He commissioned a set of wood carvings specifically for his edition of the Old Testament, which appeared between 1683 and 1708.

This technique also continued to be used to produce popular prints, such as the mazarinades, which were mass-produced during the Fronde. Indeed, xylography, being a technique in saving cutting, allows a larger and faster print run than intaglio engravings.

Burin (engraving)

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Burin engraving appeared in southern Germany around 1470 and underwent an important development throughout the sixteenth century. However, in the first half of the seventeenth century, it was considered to be particularly suitable for painting reproduction. This imitation engraving is sometimes produced directly in the painter's studio. This was the case, for example, for Jacques Stella, whose nieces, Antoinette and Claudine Bouzonnet-Stella, as well as his  nephew Antoine Bouzonnet-Stella, worked in his studio at the Louvre and engraved their uncle's works, while also working as painters and draughtsmen. The peculiarity of this family organization is that it allows two engravers to have a recognized production, which was still rare in the seventeenth century.

However, the invention of engraving with a burin continues to exist, as shown in the work of Claude Mellan. This engraver, son of a boilermaker and trained in Rome, is distinguished by a very high level of technical mastery of the burin. Thus, he creates the Holy Face from a spiral whose variation in the thickness of the line creates the drawing.

Etching

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This new technique can be explained by Flemish and Italian influences. Indeed, the Flemish artists who had immigrated to Paris brought the new practice of intaglio, while the practice of travelling to Italy was a source of emulation for the artists. Thus, great names followed one another in Rome such as Jacques Callot or Claude Mellan.

Production and distribution

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Organization of the profession

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During the reign of Louis XIV, there was a development of printmaking and a real organization of the profession. The dynamism of the intaglio engraving technique is favoured by the freedom given to the artists. Indeed, the crafts and arts and crafts were then organized into guilds responsible for regulating the professions. Despite several attempts to subject engravers to the corporative system, this freedom became official with the decision of the Council of State of Saint Jean de Luz on 26 May 1660. This act established engraving as a liberal art and guaranteed engravers their independence from any corporate system. This decree was respected throughout the reign of Louis XIV by engravers and print dealers, while intaglio printers organized themselves into a community during the year of 1677.

It should also be noted that the study of the Inventory of the French Collection shows that many engravers have only a few prints attributed to them. This is due to the fact that many have engraving only as a side hustle. This is the case of goldsmiths for example, who engrave only for a specific project, amateurs who practice engraving only for personal interest, to disseminate an idea or as part of the education, or artists or architects who sporadically try their hand at engraving such as Charles Le Brun.

The power of Louis XIV and engraving

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The freedom of this job did not exempt engravers from the censorship established by the royal power. For example, from 1677, it was forbidden to engrave castles and paintings belonging to the king without prior authorisation. Publication monitoring is severe. For example, in 1694, an image was circulated depicting Louis XIV chained by four mistresses, reproducing the sculpture The Four Captives, which had just been inaugurated at the Place des Victoires. Not only was the image banned, but the bookbind's boy and the printer were hanged on the 19th November 1694 on the Place de Grève, while the engraver owed his salvation only to his hasty flight. In general, engravers and printers were particularly monitored and liable to be held prisoner in the Bastille, such as Nicolas II de Larmessin.

International mobility

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French engraving is at the intersection between Flemish or Dutch engraving and Italian engraving. Between 1598 and 1639, there were twelve Dutch and thirty Flemish engravers established in the French capital. Some of these artists made a stop in Paris on the road linking Italy and Northern Europe. This is the case, for example, of Charles de Mallery, an engraver from Antwerp, who, after a stay in Rome, was in Paris at dawn of the seventeenth century, where he produced devotional images and portraits, before returning to his native city at an unknown date. In the case of Flemish engravers, in view of the political turmoil in their region, many settled permanently in Paris.

Many French artists stayed in Rome, such as Claude Mellan, who apprenticed there and began his career before returning to France for reasons that are still unknown to us. During his stay, he met Simon Vouet, a French painter who lived in the Italian city, and developed an engraving technique that made it possible to faithfully illustrate the rendering of the sculpture. Jacques Callot also spent time in Rome.

Under the rule of Louis XIV, there was a real political will to make Paris the European capital of printmaking.

The main themes

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Prints and decorative arts

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Printmaking plays a major role in the dynamism of creation and in the dissemination of decorative arts models. Prints make it possible to disseminate images that can be multiplied identically and thus to export forms and modes throughout Europe.

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The term “popular” refers more to the subject than to the intended audience. In addition to the period of the Fronde, marked by a flowering of caricatures, printmaking is characterized by a consolidation in the seventeenth century. The themes exploited by popular prints are above all ordinary people and their daily lives. Indeed, monarchical censorship was exercised on the edition of the engraving, thus excluding any political criticism, unless it was directed against rival foreign nations such as Spain or Holland.

These types of prints seek to convey a moral message in a serious or humorous tone by denouncing the vices of human nature such as avarice, gluttony, and luxury. This tradition of collecting proverbs for moral purposes can be traced back to the Middle Ages. The moral delivered by these works is often in the form of a short text or isolated sentences anchored in the daily life of the viewer.

The collection of the most illustrious proverbs

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The collection of the most illustrious proverbs (in French: Le recueil des plus illustres proverbes) is a work published by Jacques Lagniet in 1657 and then republished several times throughout the seventeenth century. This work consists of three books of about forty plates each:  The Moral Proverbs, The Joyful and Pleasant Proverbs and The Life of Beggars in Proverbs (in French: Les proverbes moraux, Les proverbes joyeux et plaisants, La vie de gueux en proverbs). The published plates are inspired by well-known proverbs, conveying popular morals.

These prints are an essential source for understanding the popular iconography of the mid-seventeenth century. Although this collection has been widely used historically since the nineteenth century, the artistic study of these plates has yet to be done.

Principal Engravers of the Seventeeth Century

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References

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