#daniel rabel

Peonies taken from 'Recueil de fleurs et d'insectes dessinés et peints sur vélin' (1624) by Daniel Rabel (1578?-1637).

The Royal Ballet of the Dowager of Bilbao's Grand Ball 1626 Pen and black ink, watercolour, 287 x 440 mm Musée du Louvre, Paris

RABEL, Daniel

French printmaker (b. 1578, Paris, d. 1637, Paris)

In the first half of the 17th century court ballet became an indispensable noble pastime, with Italy supplying ballet masters, musicians, and set designers, until the great period of Jean-Baptiste Lully. Biting satire was present in the masked balls and theatrical performances. No subject was sacrosanct, from social satire to seduction to politics. The height of grotesque caricature was perhaps attained by the variety of scenes and vulgarity of tone of The Royal Ballet of the Dowager of Bilbao's Grand Ball, Given by His Majesty in February 1626 in the Hall of the Louvre, then in the Paris Town Hall. Daniel Rabel's drawings, which have survived, give an idea of the farcical exoticism and mockery evoked through extravagant costumes and cacophonous hullabaloo, proving that buffoonery was not banned at court.

This drawing represents the entrance of the Esperlucattes.

Theatrum florae in quo ex toto orbe selecti mirabiles venustiores ac praecipui flores tanquam ab ipsius deae sinu proferuntur by Rabel, Daniel

Botanical illustrations (1624) by Daniel Rabel  taken from ‘Recueil de fleurs et d'insectes dessinés et peints sur vélin.’

Bibliothèque nationale de France.

1) Hepatica trifolia

2) Anemones simples

3) Rosa batavica minor, Rosa bata major

4) Hyacinthus comosus

5) Ranunculus tripolitanus

6) Anemone,  Iris bisantina 

7) Ciclamen anthiochenum, Ciclamen bisantinum

8) Tulipes bordees

9) Lilac

10) Auricula urcy 

Botanical illustrations taken from ‘Recueil de fleurs et d'insectes dessinés et peints sur vélin’ by Daniel Rabel. Text by Jean-Joseph Rive.

Published 1624.