J & J LUBRANO MUSIC ANTIQUARIANS Archives

Fine large half-length portrait engraving by Jean-Louis Roullet (1645-1699) after Paulus Mignard (1639-1691) of the distinguished composer in formal dress holding a rolled musical manuscript

Plate impression 515 x 348 mm + wide margins, sheet size 558 x 420 mm. Portrait within oval border lettered with Lully's name and position, 6 lines of laudatory verse on a decorative cloth draped over a plinth below. Browning to edges of margins; two small (3 mm) spots of foxing. In very good condition overall. Manuscript note to verso indicating that the print was sold by the print shop at the Louvre in Paris. A very fine impression, on laid paper. Undated later impression of the second state, distinguished by the addition of the publisher's name and address at lower right corner and the privilege statement added below the engraver's name. BnF Notice no. FRBNF39623338. Collection Musical André Meyer Vol. II plate 147 (before letters, with the engraver given as Edelinck). Yale University Art Gallery Accession Number: 1984.54.151. "Lully, regarded throughout Enlightenment Europe as the leading figure in French music, created a style which was truly his own, drawing on many sources which he was probably better able to assimilate than anyone else in his time. The language he forged, and to which he sometimes brought exceptional breadth, could leave no one indifferent, and it still attracts audiences today with its power, clarity, equilibrium, coherence, poetry and exquisite sensitivity." Jérôme de La Gorce in Grove Music Online. A fine early engraving of the composer.