Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle

This engraved portrait by Lambert Suavius (ca. 1510-1567) presents the famed French cardinal, statesman, and collector Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (1517-1586). Considered one of the most important patrons of the period, Granvelle was portrayed by many artists, in print, oil, sculpture, and medals (see, for example, 1975.1.1289).

The present print is the earlier of two portraits of Granvelle engraved by Suavius. Dated 1554, it portrays the cleric and diplomat at a crucial point in his career. As art historian Edward Wouk has discussed, it was between 1551 and 1562--over the course of which Granvelle rose from bishop to cardinal and from Charles V's secretary to autonomous statesman--that he deployed print media as a primary means of crafting his public persona as a learned humanist.[1] In these years Granvelle forged a partnership with print publisher Hieronymous Cock, evidently playing a role in several of Cock's prints and print series depicting ancient and Renaissance art. The patron's palace in Brussels, acquired in 1547, was also expanded in the early 1550s to include an inner court and gallery to house his antiquities and his growing collection of contemporary art. Whether the setting in Suavius's 1554 print is imagined or reflects the actuality of Granvelle's palace, the choice of classical architecture aligns with the patron's self-fashioning as a modern Mecaenas--the ancient exemplar of patronage explicitly invoked in Suavius's laudatory inscription at lower right.

In addition to being significant for its subject, this engraving is fascinating for the technical prowess it displays. Suavius, who worked in the circle of his brother-in-law Lambert Lombard in Liège, is believed to have produced prints using both a burin and a glazier's stylus with a diamond point. The unusual use of the latter tool may account for the distinctive qualities present in this print: the remarkable delicacy of line, the striking gradations of tone, and the overall grainy quality. Regardless of his instrument, Suavius's skilled hand captures detail with an extraordinary degree of finesse, from the subtle grain of the various stone surfaces, to the creases, folds, and sheen of the man's garment.





[1] Edward H. Wouk, "Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, the Quatre Vents press, and the patronage of prints in Early Modern Europe," in Simiolus, vol. 38, no. 1/2 (2015-16), pp. 31-61.