‘FRENCH SCHOOL OF ENGRAVING. 
e0i%. Sir Francis de Sales, bifhop and prince of Geneva, 
after nature, and Louis Alexandre. de Bourbon, count de 
Thouloufe, and admiral of France, after Gobert, infcribed 
N. Pitau junior fe. 
Louis Coffin was born at Troyes, in Champagne, A. D. 
1633, and lived tillabout the clofe of the century. For 
fome reafon or other, he frequently altered - peas al 
of his name, an 
are all the fame perfon. with the. ae 
in a poor on taftel. {; ftyle, ey is ae deficient in drawing 
and chiaro-feuro. His beft hiftorical engravings are in folio, 
and their sine as follow : 
2” after Le Brun, and, from the fame matter, 
of St. John the Evangelit.”’ « The 
ool ae after Raphael, a aed large plate. 
“ Paul ee t Lyttra,”’ after J. mpagne, oie a 
of feature, publifhed in the Cine des Bea 
ha 16¢ 
The chief of Coffin’s portraits, which are juftly held in 
more efteem than his hiftorical works, are thofe of Louis 
XV., as large as life; and infcribed L. nad vivum 
pinx Jean oujat Juris-confulto Pence after F. 
Saré. Valentin Conrat, of the French Academy, after C. 
>Fevre. Francis Chauveau, defigner and engraver, aft 
the fame. - Louis Roupert, a goidimith of Metz, infcribed 
P. Rabon pinx. L. Coilinus {c. Jean de Schulenbourg, 
comte de Mon ndejeux, aiter Bernard, L. Coquin fe,; and 
Charles Jean Comte de Koenig {marl k, after M. Dall, all in 
olio. 
Gerard Edelinck, the areca of Bolfwert, Vortter- 
man, aa Pontius, appear 
graving before. he qui uitted Antwerp, and p 
ftudying the works of thofe diftingnifhed on Se 
cate in Paris foon after the middle of the feventeenth centu- 
ty ; where his merit immediately fhone forth, and in that age 
and Country of liberal eta readily procured him the 
ion 0 
of | Chevalier. In the year 1707 he dich 3 in the 
French keeles at a very advanced age. 
Though Edelinck was contemporary w Audran, and 
muft have feen the Ses and pidcireique feeling which the 
admixture of etchi imparted to. his iftorical works, 
and mutt have ent ca probably joined i sh the encomiums 
that were juftly beftowed on them, he did n aed eviate from 
that mode of building up for himfelf, a lofty | and lating re- 
putation, a nature and education had marked out. for 
him. s of the halcyon gales which feemed to court 
his canvas, he fheadily purfued his original courfe ; and with 
e graver alone he ploughed up ample field of his fame. 
Wedded to the seed had adopt 
his _ he did not, in his maturer age, allow the tae 
charms of the you weed - ie miftrefs of Audran t 
air Hee affeCtio 
ould appe ar, fees that the cognofcenti of 
the pee ae d in opinion, as 
ing what is now thought on 
jet, Edelinck a pofibly, among his Ses eatin 
find even more ers than Audran. eee the ho- 
nour of the ieee le it has been fai ae es recom- 
mended | Edelinck t e Brun’s notice, . engrave ‘the 
Tent of Darius,” on a modeft perfuafion that his own 
owers were inadequate to the delicacy of the talk. It is 
pretty well known that at the period now fpoken of, the 
means were by many miftaken for the end of engraving. 
2 
The ignorant gradually learn to worthip the idol itfelf, that 
was at firft fet ae 
lead their minds t 
the engraver’s 
art more vulgarly obvious than exquifite drawing, or delicate 
enersy, of expreffion 
f Chrift in his 
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originals which he copied, and a thoroughly empowered. 
he was to render them ee 
nder fuch circumftances, though potterity fhould beftow 
the palm of ye rity on u a it will not be 
furprifed that Edelinck chofe hese to e firfvengraver 
in a ftyle that had already been honoured with general fiaa 
bation, than to enter into a rivalry, which might hav 
ended in _— him the Jecond hiftorical engraver of 
his 
os 
age. 
‘ ale 
hurvan fou 
and corre¢ctnefs which is fo remarkable in the prints of eee 
Audran; neither are his hands and feet marked in that 
maf erly, manner, or with alee truth. And if we anes 
that a engraving by him, reprefenting the tent of 
Darius run, which e has finifhed in fo beautiful. 
a Snes peti the baciee of Alexander, by Au , from 
the fame mafter, we thal ree, I believe, that the 
fin 
mer.. 
Among the moft ang prints by this great. artift; may» 
be hore the following: 
a eee four Ho rfemen,’?° with aah of the- 
ad air ve ch er of acom 
Leonardo da Vinci, milalediy infcribed o ep 
la Finfe pinxit,”’ a fearce and valuable nt in large folic... 
Holy Family,” wiit Elizabeth, St. John, and two — 
es one of which is fcattering fica rs, an upright folio, . 
from the famcus picture of Raffaclle, which was in the king» 
of France’s colleGtion. The angen ahleangay! are known by 
their having been taken before the arms of Colbert were - 
d b ates fecond edition is 
ird the arms are taken out, but . 
the ag leah they had been inferted is very perceptible. — 
From ictures of Le Brun, Edelinck has engraven. 
ae fo ence of Chrift,” a very large and beautiful en- . 
ae it 
oe -fized upright, the proof impreffions of which are 
y their having been = before the fubject was. 
be of 
S 
entering the Tent of Darius,” a very large print, engraved 
On. 
