[28] In the National Library at Paris a collection of over a hundred trial proofs, retouched by Rubens himself, exists to bear witness to the careful attention with which he overlooked the work of his engravers. [29] At the time of Callot's birth Lorraine was not yet French territory; but as it was during his life that Nancy was taken by the king's army, we have a right to include him among French artists. [30] He was in all twelve years in Italy: three in Rome, and nine in Florence. [31] William Faithorne, the first line engraver worth mentioning in the history of English art, did not even begin to be known till after Charles I. After the king's fall, Faithorne, who was a Royalist, went to France, where, under Nanteuil, he perfected himself in his art, and did not finally settle in England till near the end of 1650. [32] Hollar is not merely one of the most distinguished of German engravers. There are few artists in any country who have handled the needle with so much skill and intelligence; there is probably none who has so greatly excelled in rendering the details of apparel and of the daintiest objects. His achievement numbers more than 2,000 prints, which, in spite of their small size, and the generally trifling nature of the subjects, deserve to be classed amongst the most remarkable etched work of the seventeenth century. [33] His first plates are sometimes signed "De Leeuw," sometimes "Tomaes de Leu," which has led many writers--M. Robert-Dumesnil among them--to suppose that he migrated to Paris from a town in Flanders. [34] It represents a "Holy Family," with this inscription on a stone, to the right: "R. Nanteuil Philosophiæ Auditor Sculpebat Rhemis An^o dni 1645." [35] These flights were not Nanteuil's last. There is extant a sort of petition in verse, which he one day presented to Louis XIV. to excuse himself for not having finished in time a portrait ordered by the king. These rhymes, quoted by the Abbé Lambert in his "Histoire Littéraire du Règne de Louis XIV.," and some others composed by Nanteuil in praise of Mlle. de Scudéry, are not such to make us regret that he did not more frequently lay aside the graver for the pen. [36] The greater part of Nanteuil's drawings are in three crayons, made out in places with light tints in pastel. The colour is sober and delicate, and offers a good deal of resemblance to the charming French crayons of the sixteenth century. Nanteuil doubtless produced many portraits which he never engraved, but he engraved very few that he had not previously produced. It must also be remarked, that in his achievement, which is composed of more than two hundred and thirty pieces, there are not more than eighteen subject pictures or illustrations. It is worthy, too, of special note that there are only eight portraits in which the hands are seen, and in six of these only one hand is shown.