Art Institute of Chicago

Defeat of the Spanish Army Near the Canal at Bruges by the Troops of King Louis XIV 1667

Sébastien Le Clerc the elder (French, 1637-1714)

Date

1680

Medium

Engraving and etching in black on off-white laid paper

Culture

France

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

The prolific printmaker Sébastien Le Clerc the Elder produced a series of historic subjects after the court painter Charles Le Brun’s tapestry models. This particular work celebrates the victory of King Louis XIV of France over the Spanish in 1667. The mounted figure facing the viewer is Louis XIV himself. Le Clerc retained the original composition’s ornamental borders, creating a fictive sense of the tapestry as a luxury object with its own framing device. While significantly smaller than a wall hanging, this print is nonetheless impressively filled with intricate detail.

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