Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Contrôleur général des Finances 1662

Curator: Here we have Robert Nanteuil’s print of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV’s all-powerful finance minister. Editor: There’s something about the austerity of the medium, the cool, almost clinical line work, that makes Colbert seem less a man and more a calculating machine. Curator: Nanteuil was celebrated for his ability to capture likeness and character through engraving. The details of Colbert’s face—the slight downturn of the mouth, the knowing glint in his eye—convey a sense of shrewd intelligence. Editor: Consider the material reality of this print. It’s one of many, meant to circulate, to broadcast Colbert’s image and, by extension, the power of the French state. The act of reproduction itself speaks to the bureaucratization of image and authority. Curator: Perhaps. But I also see a very human portrayal here, one that hints at the complexities and contradictions of a man who served his king—and, perhaps, himself—with unwavering devotion. Editor: It’s an interesting tension, isn’t it? The cold, reproducible image versus the flicker of personality Nanteuil manages to capture. Curator: Indeed. It is a work that reveals as much as it conceals.