03 — ARTWORK
Frontispiece of a Bible
- MEDIUM
- Engraving, 412 x 262 mm
- TYPE
- Religious
PALETTE
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THIS REPRODUCTION
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CURRENT LOCATION · Bibliothèque Nationale
- FILE
- 805 × 1300 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
This engravingA print made from a metal plate that has had a design cut into it with a sharp point. Ink is smeared over the plate and then wiped off, the ink remaining in the etched lines being transferred when the plate is pressed very firmly onto a sheet of paper. is the frontispiece for a de luxe edition of the Bible published by the Imprimerie Royale in 1642. It was executed after the design by Nicolas Poussin.
The artist depicts on the left the winged personificationan imaginary person conceived as representing a thing, concept or deity. of History, looking behind her and writing down what she has seen, and on the right the veiled figure of Prophecy, holding a small sphinx before her as a symbol of the enigmatic nature other pronouncements. Above these two figures, who symbolise the Past and the Future, floats God the Father, who as the source of all things also created Time. Poussin took the inspiration for his composition from <a onclick="return OpenOther('/html/r/raphael/5roma/5/10trans2.html')" href="/html/r/raphael/5roma/5/10trans2.html">Raphael's Transfiguration,</a> where Christ is portrayed in precisely the same fashion.
OTHER WORKS BY CLAUDE MELLAN
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-r6a3c53fca4942c,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Frontispiece of a Bible by MELLAN, Claude},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-13},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/mellan-claude-r6cd51c768d95e0/frontispiece-of-a-bible-r6a3c53fca4942c},
urldate = {2026-09-13},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-13. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.