Iconographie Ou Vies Des Hommes Illustres Du XVII. Siecle: Contenant Les Vies Des Princes, Ducs, Comtes, Generaux, &c.
This is an 18th-century printed series of engraved portraits of seventeenth-century nobles, generals and princes, issued in 1759 from Anton van Dyck's paintings after work by engravers Paulus Pontius and Lucas Vorsterman, held by Heidelberg University Library. The pictures are bust-length male portraits in fine black-and-white line engraving, with ruffs, armour, fur-trimmed robes and heraldic arms in the top corners. A designer could draw on their dense cross-hatched tonal modelling, dramatic lighting against plain grounds, and formal Baroque poses for period costume and portrait framing.
