Gilles Rousselet (1610-1686) and Abraham... - Lot 70 - Ader

Gilles Rousselet (1610-1686) and Abraham Bosse (1593-1670) Mariamne; Camme; Monime; Porcie; Lucrèce; Arrie (6 of 20 plates for Pierre Le Moyne, La Galerie des Femmes Fortes, Paris, chez Antoine de Sommaville, 1647). Engraved after Claude Vignon. Each 215 x 340. Very nice proofs on laid paper, the 2nd with typographed text on the reverse. Some light foxing and soiling. Small margins. "This book, which was a considerable success, is illustrated with twenty plates drawn by Claude Vignon and engraved with burin by Gilles Rousselet for the main character, and with etching by Abraham Bosse for the background scenes (...).) While Rousselet tends to regularize the forms, the silhouettes and the features of the faces, to interiorize the feelings and to reject the mannerist elements, in an interpretation more in conformity with the spirit that father Le Moyne sought, Bosse on the contrary follows his model line for line; his point translates marvelously the pathos and the ardor of the small figures, in a perfect adequacy of his art with that of Vignon. The excudit of Mariette suggests that the plates were also published independently of the book. Le Moyne had taken a privilege of twelve years prohibiting any counterfeit of the text and the illustrations, under penalty of 4 000 livres of fine. This was a lost cause, for a large number of painted and engraved copies attest to their success." (www.expositionsbnf.fr/bosse).