Printing the Grand Manner: Charles Le Brun and Monumental Prints in the Age of Louis XIV

Louis Marchesano and Christian Michel

This volume illuminates an extraordinary moment in the intertwined history of painting and printmaking in Europe. The brilliant age of Louis XIV saw the creation of a group of unusually large prints―some of which measure a fantastic five feet by three feet when assembled―that reproduced works by the French king's remarkably inventive court painter, designer, and arts administrator, Charles Le Brun (1619–1690).

The two essays and the catalogue entries in this volume focus on eleven of these monumental reproductive engravings. The authors not only relate the fascinating story of the production of these prints but also explore their role in the glorification of Louis XIV and in forming critical opinion of Le Brun as an artist and as an advocate of history painting in the Grand Manner.

This volume accompanied the exhibition Printing the Grand Manner: Monumental Prints in the Age of Louis XIVheld at the Getty Research Institute from May 18 to October 17, 2010.

Louis Marchesano is curator of prints and drawings at the Getty Research Institute. Christian Michel is professor of art history at the Université de Lausanne.