Abregé De La Vie Des Plus Fameux Peintres: Avec Leurs Portraits Gravés En Taille-Douce, Les Indications De Leurs Principaux Ouvrages, Quelques Réflexions sur leurs caractères Et La Manière De Connoître Les Desseins Des Grands Maîtres
An 18th-century French illustrated biographical dictionary of painters by Antoine Joseph Dézallier d'Argenville, published in 1745 for art lovers and connoisseurs, with engraved portraits of famous artists. The pictures are oval head-and-shoulders engraved portraits set in ornate scrolled cartouches with lettered name plates below, showing bearded men in period collars and dress, and a designer might borrow the framing of rococo scrolls and the fine crosshatched line shading.
