LA NAISSANCE DE LA REINE 1708 Gaspard Duchange - Rubens ANTIQUE ETCHING

Original 1708 17 inch x 23 1/4 inch Etching and Engraving titled LA NAISSANCE DE LA REINE (THE BIRTH OF THE QUEEN)

The Birth of Marie de' Medici; the female personification of the city of Florence enthroned at centre, wearing a mural crown and accepting a baby (Marie de' Medici) from the goddess Lucina who also carries a torch, 'Happy Hours' dropping flowers on the child from above, a winged genius carrying a cornucopia with crowns and sceptres in top left, the river-god Arno reclining with a lion in lower left, the zodiac sign of Sagittarius at top centre; from an album containing twenty-five engravings.

Print by Gaspard Duchange (1662 - 1757). A French engraver.
Intermediary draughtsman Jean Baptiste Nattier (1678 - 1726). A French history painter.

After the painting by Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640) now in Paris, in the Musée du Louvre. Sir Peter Paul Rubens was a Flemish artist. He is considered the most influential artist of Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens's highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of classical and Christian history. His unique and immensely popular Baroque style emphasized movement, colour, and sensuality, which followed the immediate, dramatic artistic style promoted in the Counter-Reformation. Rubens specialized in making altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects.

Published by Jean Marc Nattier

Inscription: Lettered in lower margin with four lines of French and production details: "Rubens pinxit" and "I.B. Nattier delineavit. / G. Duchange Sculpsit." and "A Paris chez le S.r Nattier Peintre de l'Academie Royale rue Frementeau / Avec Privilege du Roy" and "Junon Lucine Deesse des accouchemens ... / .... de la naissance de la Reine."

The etching is in very good condition with 3 border tears, 2 at the top and 1 in the right edge. General age-related toning with minor defects from handling.