1650
ink
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
The Fan is a 1650 ink by French 17th Century, a Baroque work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This image shows a busy battle scene framed like a decorative fan. Soldiers clash on a bridge and in boats on a river, while crowds watch from the shore. At the bottom, people in fancy clothes stand near a carriage, some pointing toward the fighting. The text at the top names it a battle, but the artist used two pieces of paper pasted together to make this odd shape. The mix of action and spectators feels dramatic. Next, look up technique: etching to see how artists like this made detailed prints.
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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