Genre: Information/Explanation

Léon Davent was a French printmaker in the mid 16th century , closely associated with the First School of Fontainebleau . He worked in both engraving and etching and many of his works are based on designs by Francesco Primaticcio , " rendered boldly and freely " . Others use designs by Luca Penni and other artists . It is thought that there was a workshop at the Palace of Fontainebleau itself in the 1540s , where he was one of the leading printmakers . Their main purpose seems to have been to record the new style being forged at Fontainebleau , copying both the main subject paintings and the elaborate ornamental stuccos and other decorations . Nymph mutilating a Satyr With a couple of exceptions his prints are signed only with " L.D. " , and his identity was long uncertain ; he is known as the Master L.D. in older literature . Lists of his works have attributed between 98 ( Henri Zerner ) and 226 ( F. Herbet ) prints to him . Hunting Scene , perhaps Death of Acteon . Signed " Bologna " . Very little is known about his life ; his dated prints run between 1540 and 1556 , when he left a series incomplete , which may indicate his death . There is no evidence that he trained as a painter , and like many early engravers he may have been trained as a goldsmith , a trade where engraving was still important . His engravings , which are presumed to be his earliest works , show a considerable fluency in this difficult technique . According to Henri Zerner , he may have produced about 9 early prints before moving to Fontainebleau , and he may only have started etching , rather than engraving , in about 1540 . Others see him as only beginning to make engravings in 1540 , when his first dated print appears , and etchings from about 1543 – 1544 . Once the switch had been made , he only made etchings . He was perhaps taught etching by Antonio Fantuzzi , one of the Italians at Fontainebleau , and in turn seems to have passed some of his experience of techniques in engraving on to him . Apart from Penni and Primaticcio , who he knew , he made prints after drawings brought from Italy , presumably by Primaticcio , by Giulio Romano and Parmigianino , but not Rosso Fiorentino , unlike Fantuzzi and " Master I ♀ V " . In about 1546 he seems to have left France , perhaps in the company of Luca Penni , as a number of prints dated 1546 or 1547 are based on designs by Penni , and printed on paper from Germany ( as it then was ) . These also use black ink and " the printing has a hard , professional look " . He produced some of the illustrations for Les Quatre Premiers Livres des navigations et pérégrinations orientales by the geographer and valet de chambre Nicolas de Nicolay , published in Lyon in 1548 . Henri Zerner only attributed 3 of the illustrations to him , while Herbet gives him 61 . Diana at Rest , after 1547 , etching after Primaticcio . In the 1550s Davent was in Paris , again using Penni's designs . As " Lion Davant " he signed a contract in 1555 to produce illustrations for a book called Livre de la diversitée des habits du Levant ( " Book of the different costumes of the Levant " ) , again by de Nicolay . Davent's latest print for the book is dated 1556 , but the published book only contains 61 plates , rather than the 80 in the contract . The publication of this contract by Catherine Grodecki in 1974 ended the discussion over the identity of " Master L.D. " ; there had been a number of other suggestions , in particular Léonard Thiry . He also worked closely with Antonio Fantuzzi , and did etch a number of designs by Thirly . In the contract of November 1555 he was recorded as living on the Rue Saint-Jacques . Although there is no certain proof , most scholars have agreed that there was a printmaking workshop at the Palace of Fontainebleau itself , reproducing the designs of the artists for their works in the palace , as well as other compositions they produced . The most productive printmakers were Davent , Fantuzzi , and Jean Mignon , followed by the " mysterious " artist known from his monogram as " Master I ♀ V " ( ♀ being the alchemical symbol for copper , from which the printing plates were made ) , and the workshop seems to have been active between about 1542 and 1548 at the latest ; François I of France died in March 1547 , after which funding for the palace ended , and the school dispersed . These were the first etchings made in France , and not far behind the first Italian uses of the technique , which originated in Germany . The earliest impressions of all the Fontainebleau prints are in brown ink , and their intention seems to have been essentially reproductive . The intention of the workshop was to disseminate the new style developing at the palace more widely , both to France and to the Italians' peers back in Italy . Whether the initiative to do this came from the king or another patron , or from the artists alone , is unclear . David Landau believes that Primaticcio was the driving force ; he had stepped up to become the director of the work at Fontainebleau after the suicide of Rosso Fiorentino in 1540 . Cadmus fighting the Dragon , after Primaticcio The enterprise seems to have been " just slightly premature " in terms of catching a market . The etched prints were often marked by signs of the workshop's inexperience and sometimes incompetence with the technique of etching , and according to Sue Welsh Reed : " Few impressions survive from these plates , and it is questionable whether many were pulled . The plates were often poorly executed and not well printed ; they were often scratched or not well polished and did not wipe clean . Some may have been made of metals soft as copper , such as pewter . " A broadening market for prints preferred the " highly finished textures " of Nicolas Beatrizet , and later " proficient but ultimately uninspired " engravers such as René Boyvin and Pierre Milan . David Landau describes one of his etchings ( Female Nude Standing , see galllery ) as representing " the imaginative recording of new artistic expression " in an " experimental etching ... full of adventurous lighting devices and daring chiaroscuro , but also defaced by the spots of foul biting and incompetent printing " . Cadmus fighting the Dragon is a large ( 9 13 / 16 in . × 12 in . ( 25 × 30.5 cm ) with small margins ) and highly finished etching , to a design by Primaticcio , that is one of his most highly-regarded prints . According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art , it " provides an excellent example of Davent's preference for an all-over gray tone , from which a few lighter areas stand out , giving subtle relief to the forms . This is achieved firstly by covering almost the entire surface of the plate , including the sky , with a close-knit web of lines . Davent also left most of the plate rough – or even , in the case of this print , deliberately roughened it – so that it would hold a film of ink . Only a few areas are polished smooth , hold little ink , and read as highlights " . " Alexander the Great and Campaspe sitting on a couch and posing for Apelles standing in the foreground in front of his easel " , c . 1541 / 45 . After Primaticcio , height 375 mm , width 260 mm . The obscurity of the subject is very typical of the School of Fontainebleau , and at times Jason , Theseus and Hercules have all been proposed as the hero , but it fits much better with the story of Cadmus , the legendary founder of Thebes , as told by Ovid . It seems to form part of a cycle of five prints on the story of Cadmus , the others by Fantuzzi , Master I ♀ V , and two unidentified hands . Davent did three etchings in vertical oval format after the cycle of frescos in the bedroom of Francois I's mistress , the Duchess of Étampes ( 1508 – 1580 ) , from which a total of eleven compositions surviving today are known . The cycle showed the life of Alexander the Great , but with little emphasis on his military career . Some survive in situ , though heavily repainted and perhaps moved within the room , which was remodelled more than once , and is now part of the " King's Staircase " . Others survive in prints and drawings ; the subject with the story of Alexander , Apelles and Campaspe was also etched by Master I ♀ V , and is recorded in a preparatory drawing at Chatsworth House . The oval paintings were set in much larger stucco frames , with a standing female nude to either side and much else besides ; several of these survive . An etching of Michelangelo at the Age of Twenty-Three ( see gallery ) is " somewhat , but not altogether , surprising " as a subject in France some forty years after 1498 , when Michelangelo was that age . It is identified by the inscription beneath , but is not signed by " L.D. " , unlike most of Davent's prints . It is certainly not " an actual likeness , since the figure is not in the least individualized " . Henri Zerner suggests " most tentatively " that 1498 was the date the sculptor signed the contract for his Pietà , now in St. Peter's Basilica , Vatican City with the French ambassador in Rome , Cardinal Jean de Bilhères , who commissioned the work . A French audience might therefore regard this point in his life as especially significant .