Sébastien Bourdon

Although Mariette preferred mats of uniform size for his drawings, the standard format of the mounts was sometimes altered to accommodate larger compositions, such as this sheet. Occasionally he rejected drawings too large to fit properly in his window mats. Unique in Bourdon’s oeuvre, this sheet is the initial design for the border of a printed portrait of Queen Christina of Sweden engraved in 1656 by Michel Lasne (1590–1667).