Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte (Maincy, France); France -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
(6) Medallion. The picture is much disfigured; the inscription:
Qu'il a de probité, de sçavoir et de zelle,
Qu'il paroit généreux, magnanime et prudent,
Que son esprit est fort, que son cœur est fidelle,
Toutes ces qualités l'on fait Surintendant.
(7) Medallion, with drapery. Very bad. Signature: "Baltazar Moncornet,
excud."
(8) The same, with a frame of foliage, 1658.
(9) A small copy, reversed, executed after Foucquet's death, the date
of which is indicated, 23rd March, 1680. It is old, hard, dark and
damaged. Signature: "Nanteuil, pinxit, Gaillard, sculpt."
A portrait of Lebrun deserves honourable mention after that of
Nanteuil. The features are practically the same as in the engraving by
Eugène Reims; but the expression is not so keen, nor so cheerful. The
head, three-quarter profile, is turned to the right. This picture is
the original of the three following engravings:
(1) A large oval. Signature: "C. Lebrun pinx, F. Poilly sculpt."
Inscription:
Illustrissimus vir Nicolaus Foucquet
Generalis in Supremo regii Ærarii
Præfectus: V. Comes Melodunensis, etc.
In a later copy, Foucquet's arms replace the Latin inscription.
(2) A spoiled and softened copy, very careless workmanship. Signature:
"C. Mellan del. et F."
(3) An imitation. Foucquet, seated in a straight-backed armchair, with
large wrought nail-heads, with a casket on the table beside him. He
holds a pen in his right hand, and paper in his left. Inscription:
Magna videt, majora latent; ecce aspicis artis
Clarum opus, et virtus clarior arte latet,
Umbra est et fulget, solem miraris in umbra
Quid sol ipse micat, cujus et umbra micat.
Signature: "Œgid. Rousselet, sculpt., 1659."
(4) An imitation. Signature: "Larmessin, 1661." Finally, we must
mention a full-length portrait, which seems inspired by the foregoing.
The Superintendent is standing, wearing a long robe; he holds in his
right hand a small bag, in his left a paper. A raised curtain displays,
on the right, a country scene, with a torrent, a rock and a fortified
château. In the sky, Renown puts a trumpet to her mouth. In her left
hand she holds another trumpet with a bannerette on which is written:
"Quo non ascendet?" Inscription:
A quel degré d'honneur ne peut-il pas monter
S'il s'élève tousjours par son propre courage?
Son nom et sa vertu lui donnent l'advantage
De pouvoir tout prétendre et de tout mériter.
[23] A summary of the inventory at Saint-Mandé: MS. of the Bibliothèque
Nat. Manusc. Suppl, fr. 10958, cited by M. Edm. Bonnaffé, _Les Amateurs
de l'ancienne France_.--Le Surintendant Foucquet, librairie de l'Art,
1882.
[24] Loc. cit., pp. 61 _et seq._
[25] Description of the city of Paris, 1713, p. 60.
[26] _Mémoire des Académiciens_, Vol. I, p. 21. Bonnaffé, loc. cit., p.
15.
[27] Preface to _Œdipe, Collect. des grands écrivains,_ Vol. VI, p. 103.
[28] With great pomp.
[29] The original edition has _plainte._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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