1650
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Marie de Medici is a 1650 ink by French 17th Century, a Baroque work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This print shows a woman in a rich, flowing dress sitting in a chair, holding a small object in her hand. Around her, the frame is packed with tiny scenes and Latin text, like a comic strip of her life. The lines are sharp and detailed, with shadows adding depth to the figures. The whole thing looks like a mix of portrait and storybook, celebrating her role in history. The artist used tiny lines to build up the image—this is called cross-hatching. Check out more about technique: cross-hatching next.
Seventeenth-century French printmakers turned ink into story. Their tools were burin and acid, paper their stage. Look at the Beggar Woman with Rosary (1622), etched on laid paper, her hands folded around faith, or The…
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