Je hais mes traits dans mon miroir,
Je les aime dans son ouvrage.
At this time he engraved the set of small-size portraits which represents the high-water mark of his talent. Can one possibly imagine anything more exquisitely choice than his heads of Maridat the philosopher and Hugues de Lionne the secretary for foreign affairs? With equal excellence he made the portraits of Chapelain, one of the founders of the French Academy, who reported himself to the King as a greater poet than Corneille, Scudéry, who signed the popular novels written by his sister, the witty Marquis de St. Brisson, the poets Loret and Sarrazin, the genial Abbé de Marolles, savant and print-collector, the learned octogenarian Le Vayer, and the ex-preceptor of the King, the archbishop of Paris, Péréfixe de Beaumont.
Nanteuil. Jean Loret
Engraved in 1668 from Nanteuil’s own drawing from life
Loret is chiefly remembered for his Gazette, written in vers libres, which he began to issue in 1650, and continued until his death in 1666.
Size of the original engraving, 10⅛ × 7⅛ inches
Nanteuil. François de la Mothe le Vayer