Getty Museum
The Destruction of Pharaoh's Army and Other Scenes within a Cartouche
Creator
Etienne DelauneFrench Artist · 1518–1519
All works by this person →Étienne Delaune provided many designs for the much-admired decorative arts of France under King Henry II. He was recorded as a journeyman goldsmith in Paris in 1546 and worked briefly as the king's chief medallist at the royal mint in 1552. Although dismissed from that post, he continued working for the king: in 1556 he furnished designs for Henry's parade armor. Delaune took up engraving around 1
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1560–1570
- Medium
- Pen and black and brown ink, gray wash,, on vellum
- Culture
- French
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Beneath a seated personification of Faith, each of these images focuses on a specific act of faith from the Old Testament. In the center, Moses causes the waters of the Red Sea to drown Pharoah's army. In the two side ovals, Joshua and the Israelites bring down the walls of Jericho, and Gideon chooses his soldiers according to whether they lapped water instead of kneeling down to drink. At the bottom, Jacob sacrifices his son Isaac. In minute detail Étienne Delaune delineated the strapwork cartouche with its ornamental putti, the grotesque masks at the lower corners, and the bunches of fruit. He carefully applied areas of wash to give the blank plaques and curling strapwork the impression of three-dimensionality. He probably intended the drawing as a design for a wall decoration. The elaborate frame of the drawing would have been sculpted in stucco relief, and the various empty spaces would have contained inscriptions.
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