— OF ENGRAVING. 
Jean Pierre Camus, bifhop o ey. Robert Arnauld 
‘d’ Andilly, (a pale eaed se ) ae Paffire Maffon, (a ce- 
‘Aebrated advocate. ) of the French aca- 
demy. livier 
trv academy, and Jean Baptilte Colbert, 
aie of {tate, all i in es The only hiltorical plate from 
his graver, with which we are acqu uainted, is alfo in folio, 
and its fubjec&t « Jefus Chrift laid in the Sepulchre ;” after 
le Sueur. 
Simon Thomaffin was born at Troyes in Champagne in 
the year ae and was a defcendant of Philip pee grt 
the tutor of Callot, who be ifhed at Rome toward t 
clofe of ie Gsaseath centu After acquiring the r a 
ments of drawing and cae a in his natal city, he repaired 
to Paris, and es m thence to Rome, where he ftudied in 
~ academy founded by the French king for the improve- 
ment of thofe young artifts who were fent from I'rance. 
He afterwards returned to Paris, where he bec 
ber of the Royal Academy, and where he died in in oe oe 
5° 
i es 
“The fly a of ae eee 8 a which is performed 
, but laboured and dry ; 
gs.” 
His largeft work is a folio volume, containing two hun- 
dred and eighteen plates of the fculptures which adorn the 
chateau and gardens of Verfailles ; and his beft hiftorical works 
graven in 1684 St. Paul carried up into the third Hea- 
ven,”’ a circle, engraven in 1684, after Pouffin. “ Jefus 
the M of Olives,” after run. “ San ine 
largeft and beft of Thomaffin’ § hiftorical ; raved on 
two plates. 
The beft of his alae are thofe of Louis, duke de 
uphin, defigned and engraven 
folio. Maria Adelaide of 
Savoy, Duchefs de Bovgegne. Id. gel et fc. Paul Beau- 
villier, duke de Aignon, peer of France. S.'Thomaffin fe. 1695, 
in folio. Arnauld, cardinal d’Offat. S. Thomaffin fecit, 
f{culptor Regius, in 4to. Charles XII. king of Sweden, 
S. Thomaflin fecit, gto. Francis Hebert, bifhop of Agen ; 
to ine Furetier e€, 0 
e 
French‘ ‘academy, C 
of Lo 
exander 
died in the fame city in 1741 a ete learned the 
principles = - art ce his father, he ftudied under Picart, 
whom he accompanied to Holland. 
dam ‘he ed to 
he at all ae to his aint in his ne of the ia 
figure. 
His principal hiftorical nee are in folio, ae -_ entitled 
da: e out of Paradife, eM 
as ollows : m an an 
condemned to Labour,” ee a serie g° f Dem m. Fei) in 
ie cabinet of Crozat. « Melanchol ing fi 
meditating on afcull, after the fame a a eam the se 
VoL. XV. 
colle€tion. This print is one of the beft of his engr — 
‘and ably executed. “ The Pilgrims. of Emmaus,’’ after 
painting of Paul Veronefe, in the collection of Crozat. 
two beg te ‘one of 
es her 
after Rubens, exigraven ‘h 
rection of B. Picart. «* The cate 
the Virgin,” froma celebrated painting “b 
choir of Notre Dame. ‘“ The Wrat 
peafed by the Tears of his Fam mily,”” after la Foffe. « ve 
Plague in the weeks of Marfeilles, during 172, ” (witha 
fription,) painted by J. Fr. de Troy. « Apollo oe 
tin wards to the Arts and Sciences, and 
Minerva crown- 
ing the Cae a France,’’ a cieling piece painted b 
nard for the {mall apartments of the king at Ve: alee. Sim, 
Thomaffin filius fculp. Amftel. “Nymphs furprifed by 
. 6 ice nope Venus a abe ’ from 
e I d Achates enter mple where 
Dido is fitting,” on Coysel, a the flo fubjedts from 
Watteau 
se The Return from a Ball,’’ « Recruits marching to join 
their Regiment,” a Buffoon (dedicated to count Caylus 8,) 
« Mezetin playing on the Guitar,” a fet of twelve plates of 
fafhicnable figures, by Thomaffin, Cochin and others; and 
another fet of eight, which are much fought after by 
onnoiffeurs. Note, the two latter works are of the 8vo. 
es 
fize 
The following portraits are alfo from the graver of the 
Junior Thomaffin 
Michal Ange clo Carav aggio, reflected in a mirror, which is 
eld by the painter, in qto. Charles Cignani of Bologna, 
painted 1) . Jean Theery, {culptor in ordinary to the 
ings ance “and Spain, masa Largi Cardinal 
~ Fltey, fupported by Dio u- 
trea wis, dauphin io France, ve Jean cous Tocqué ; 
ee a medallion of Louis XIV. prefented to the Arts by 
Minerva, after L. de Bologna, all in folio, 
Sebaftian le Clerc was an artift of very fuperior powers. 
He was the fon of acelebrated goldfmith of Metz, in which 
city our engraver was born in at ar 1637. e is cn to 
have ie educated an enginee t from an engraved v 
of his native city, which feo the ve of 1650, and which 
therefore, if his biographers have truly recorded the yea 
of his birth, muft have been engraven at the age of aa 3 
and from an engraved head of Jefus Chrift, which is dated in 
the year 1655, it io ap that his paffion for fine art mani- 
fefted itfelf at a early ales of his life; fo early, as 
a 
@ ° 
3 
Q 
a 
we 
fab] 
=) 
oO 
nee 
S 
r) 
engine ng 
cotoaie ae aliceded by this early ee) wee of 
his genius for the art of engravin 
He learned the firft principles of drawing, and probably of 
ad mathematics, from his father, or under his paternal roof; and, 
befide the above sae rae ex angie feveral plates with 
the graver alone, be e acquainted with that 
xo branch of the art in which he was ne deftined to hold fo dittin- 
guifhed a ran 
e was pr robably unacquainted with etching until after 
his arrival i in the French metropolis, which he vifit ed with 
ere he became earns and finally 
friend{hip with Le Bru whofe recom- 
Brun 
gr y by Le 
himfelf, to the mmifter Colbert, who being made equated 
Tt ith 
