Artist: Grégoire Huret (1606-1670)
Title: Allegorical scene showing Louis XIII with Prudence and Temperance and the Virgin Mary (Allegory of the Siege of La Rochelle)
Date: about 1638-43
School: French, XVIIth century
Medium: engraving and etching
Dimensions: 340 x 230mm (trimmed to the printed border)
Watermark: see image below
Inscriptions/marks: <<Greg. Huret Inven. Et fe.>> in the plate lower left
Condition: Fine impression, trimmed to the printed border, small tear top centre border repaired
Description: King Louis XIII of France is seated on clouds between allegories of Prudence and Temperance. Below, Force and Justice crush the Vices, while on the left, Minerva guides the hand of the young Dauphin, the future Sun King, as he paints the portrait of his father. In the top left the Virgin Mary and putti present a sword and a map to the King. According to the entry in the IFF, the map depicts La Rochelle. However, it appears to be instead a map of the Holy Land with the Nile delta at the top. Mariette wrote that this was one of Huret’s most beautiful prints.
Reference: Roger-Armand Weigert (ed) Inventaire du fonds français, graveurs du XVIIeme siècle, t. V, p. 335, Huret 193
Provenance: Antiquarius, Portobello Market, London
