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The Great Lansquenet or Standard Bearer

1658
Not on view
Prince Rupert of the Rhine (son of the exiled Frederick V of Bohemia) was one of the earliest practitioners of mezzotint, and a vital contributor to its development. Rupert met Ludwig von Siegen (the technique's inventor) in 1654, but did not attempt his own mezzotints until 1657. He made this impressive print the following year. He began by roughening his plate with a serrated-edged hatcher (a prototype of the modern mezzotint "rocker") to make the parallel shading lines at the upper left of the sheet, and the toothed wheel of a roulette (apparently attached to a pivoted pole) to form the dotlike texture of the man's skin. Next, he sliced away the metal burr with a sharp-edged scraper, and polished it with a smooth-tipped burnisher to retrieve the highlights of the white paper. Finally, he added etched lines to form the feather in the youth's cap, and the edges of his slashed-silk sleeves. Interestingly, in the original painting (attributed to Giorgione in the seventeenth century), the sleeves are made of chain mail.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Great Lansquenet or Standard Bearer
  • Artist: Prince Rupert of the Rhine (Bohemian, Prague 1619–1682 Westminster)
  • Artist: after Pietro Muttoni, called della Vecchia (Italian, Venice 1602/3–1678 Venice)
  • Date: 1658
  • Medium: Mezzotint; first state of two
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 11 x 7 7/8 in. (27.9 x 20 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1933
  • Object Number: 33.52.32
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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The Great Lansquenet or Standard Bearer
Prince Rupert of the Rhine
Pietro della Vecchia
1658
The Great Executioner with the Head of Saint John the Baptist, Prince Rupert of the Rhine Bohemian, Mezzotint with engraving; third state
The Great Executioner with the Head of Saint John the Baptist
Prince Rupert of the Rhine
1658
The Round Tower, from "Carceri d'invenzione" (Imaginary Prisons), Giovanni Battista Piranesi Italian, Etching, engraving, sulphur tint or open bite, burnishing; first state of four (Robison)
The Round Tower, from "Carceri d'invenzione" (Imaginary Prisons)
Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Giovanni Bouchard
ca. 1749–50
Scrapbook of Drawings and Prints, Gideon Saint British, Pen and ink, engraving and etching
Scrapbook of Drawings and Prints
Gideon Saint
ca. 1760
Self-Portrait, from "The Iconography", Anthony van Dyck Flemish, Etching; first state of seven
Self-Portrait, from "The Iconography"
Anthony van Dyck
ca. 1640

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