Characters from the Histories & Memoirs of the Seventeenth Century

Characters from the Histories and Memoirs of the Seventeenth Century is about the art and portraiture of famous figures during the 1600s. Excerpt: «The art of literary portraiture in the seventeenth century developed with the effort to improve the writing of history. Its first and at all times its chief purpose in England was to show to later ages what kind of men had directed the affairs and shaped the fortunes of the nation. In France it was to be practiced as a mere pastime; to sketch well-known figures in society, or to sketch oneself, was for some years the fashionable occupation of the salons.»