Rousselet after Raphael St Michael {1879} NGV [PR]

Rousselet, Gilles (1610-86; French), after Raphael (1483-1520; Italian)
Sainct Michel victorieux du demon [St Michael defeating the Devil]
Engraving & etching
Gift of George Collins Levey 1879
National Gallery of Victoria (p.183.24-1)

= Levey gift, cat.1

Rousselet was paid 800 livres for this engraving in June 1676.

The work reproduced was a gift from Pope Leo X, via his nephew Lorenzo de’Medici, to François I of France, in 1518. The subject is related to the French king’s role as head of the Ordre de Saint Michel, and the renewal of the union between France and the Church at the time, in the face of the perceived Turkish threat (for these details, refer the Louvre’s online catalogue). Dussler suggests that the painting was probably designed and painted largely by Raphael’s principal assistant Giulio Romano.

The present print was one of two added to the Cabinet du roi in 1679, according to Duplessis (1869). For the other, see Edelinck after Raphael Holy Family {1879} NGV [PR], also based on a painting by Raphael and Giulio Romano, also given to François I by Leo X in 1518.

Refs.

Not listed in NGV 1894 or 1905 

The NGV catalogue lists this print as by an unknown engraver (no reproduced). Cf. Suite et Arrangement (1727), p.1, 1^st entry; Duplessis Cabinet du roi (1869), p.7 (noting the payment, on 2 June 1676)

For Raphael’s painting, see e.g. Louvre II (1981), p.222 (Inv.610), citing Dussler and noting the contextual details as indicated above