Enigmes Joyeuses pour les Bons Esprits, Plate 8
Eighth plate of a group of 9 plates with small domestic scenes, engraved by Jan van Haelbeeck, which were either were made for, or reused by Jean Leclerc around 1615 in the sonnet series ‘Enigmes Joyeuses pour les Bons Esprits’, in which they were each published with a sonnet that hinted at the double meaning of the activities. In this plate, a woman, dressed in full 17th-century aristocratic style, sits on a chair, next to a table covered with a cloth, playing a cello, inside a room with an open window and furnished with a bed and another chair. The plate accompanies one of the sonnets of the Enigmes, which describes how the woman plays the cello, while also hinting to a slightly more erotic meaning, comparing it to a meeting with a male friend. This double meaning of the images and sonnets of the Enigmes helps explain why most copies of the series, although very popular and influential in their day, have been lost.
Artwork Details
- Title: Enigmes Joyeuses pour les Bons Esprits, Plate 8
- Artist: Jan van Haelbeeck (Flemish, active Paris (and Copenhagen?), ca. 1600–1630, died Paris, ca. 1630)
- Artist: Jean Leclerc IV (French, baptized 1560, died Paris, 1622)
- Date: ca. 1615
- Medium: Copper engraving
- Dimensions: Sheet: 4 5/8 × 5 7/8 in. (11.7 × 14.9 cm)
- Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Mary Oenslager Fund, 2016
- Object Number: 2016.360.8
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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Jan van Haelbeeck
Jean Leclerc IV
ca. 1615
Jan van Haelbeeck
Jean Leclerc IV
ca. 1615
Jan van Haelbeeck
Jean Leclerc IV
ca. 1615
Jan van Haelbeeck
Jean Leclerc IV
ca. 1615
Jan van Haelbeeck
Jean Leclerc IV
ca. 1615
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