Defeat of the Spanish Army Near the Canal at Bruges by the Troops of King Louis XIV 1667
Medium
Engraving and etching in black on off-white laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 40.9 × 56.9 cm (16 1/8 × 22 7/16 in.); Sheet: 41.1 × 57 cm (16 3/16 × 22 1/2 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
109029
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
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 wal...