Masks

Engraving, 1636, unlettered.

Magnificent example, printed on contemporary laid paper, trimmed at marginal line, occasional light foxing, in very good condition.

From the series: “Ouvrage Rare et Nouveau”, by Denis (Daniel) Boutemie, consisting of a title-page and 19 engravings.

Born in Beauvais, Daniel Boutemie, court goldsmith, medal marker and engraver, is documented as having worked in Paris from 1628 to 1636. Apart from a portrait medal, there are only a few surviving works by him and his activity as a goldsmith is only known from archival evidence. Two sets of prints by Boutemie, published in 1636 by Balthasar Moncornet's Parisian publishing house in the Rue des Gobelins, thus provide important information about the style of this elusive artist.

As the title-page indicates, “Ouvrage Rare et Nouveau / Contenant plusieurs desseins de merveilleuse / leisure sous diverses caprices et gentilesses / rappresentaes in theustustrieuse decoupure d'un / chappeau, Inventée par D, Boutemie Orfevre ordinaire du Roy, pour the Invention de/ son cabinet… ", it is intended as a complete sample book for “Orfevres, Graveurs, Ciseleurs, Sculpteurs, Menusiers et au- tres" (Jewellers, Engravers, Metal Chasers, Sculptors, Cabinet-makers, and others) and shows an extraordinary variety of fantastic and bizarre ornamental creations. The complete set is a precious and rare document of French printmaking of the fist half of the 17th century- the so-called period of the musketeers - and testifies to the artistic vitality of the period. The male and female figures represented are generally arranged in pairs and wear grotesque headdresses of plumes, cartouches, auricular ornament and other organic forms. The individual images were intended to be cut out and assembled as a large, fantastic head- dress.

Boutemie's Ouvrage Rare et Nouveau must have been very popular at the time, because in 1638 the Bolognese publisher Agostino Mitelli had already produced a set of copies.

Altogether only three complete sets are known (Bologna, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe; Florence, Bibliotheca Marcelliana; Leipzig, Grassimuse- um, Museum für Kunsthandwerk). The set of the Kunstbibliothek Berlin was lost during World War II (see Peter Fuhring, Michele Bimbenet-Privat. Le Style,Cosses de Pois". L'Orfèvrerie et la Gravure à Paris sous Louis XIII. Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 144, January 2002, pp. 67-69).