Nanteuil, Robert, 1623-1678

Michel de Marolles (1600-1681) a French clergyman, genealogist, translator, and writer active in the art sphere of the time. After collecting prints for about 21 years, by 1665 he owned 123,000 prints. A year later, he published one of the first known books on prints “Catalogue de livres d’estampes et de figures en taille-douce”, documenting this vast collection of around 6000 master printers and their work, which he sold to King Louis XIV for 28,000 livres in 1667. These prints were bound into 520 volumes and formed the basis of the Cabinet des Estampes in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.

Hardouin de Perefixe de Beaumont (1606-1671) was the Archbishop of Paris and occasional historian to King Louis XIV. He is here depicted by Robert Nanteuil, engraver to the French court, who created portraits for the most prominent members of the court at the time.

Francois Lotin de Charny (d.1684) was the President of the Parliament of Paris. His portrait is depicted here likely as a commissioned engraving to accompany a French scholar’s thesis at a public oral defence. In this scenario, Francois Lotin de Charny would have been a patron of the student, as many French dignitaries would have been at the time and have similar commissioned portraits. Another possibility is this portrait was commissioned directly by Lotin de Charny himself as a document of his position and status.