David standing with crossed legs and holding the head of Goliath on a pedestal at left, a sword on the ground, after Reni

Print • Prints

Created in 1645 during the Baroque period, this work belongs firmly within the portrait tradition. Gilles Rousselet worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.

The physical object — Engraving, Sheet (Trimmed): 11 1/8 × 7 1/16 in. (28.2 × 18 cm) — carries its own history of handling and restoration. Gilles Rousselet's brushwork here moves between exacting description and looser, more suggestive passages, a balance typical of Baroque studio practice.

Look closely and the painting opens up. Objects you might pass over — a folded letter, a half-drawn curtain, the angle of a glance — were placed to be read. The sitter is constructed: clothes, pose, and attributes were chosen to project status, virtue, and lineage.

Housed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the painting has passed through the hands of collectors, dealers, and institutions before reaching public view — a provenance that is itself part of the object's story.

“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”