Thomas de Leu (Parigi, ca. 1560 – 1612) - Les Quatre Éléments (I Quattro Elementi), Aria

“Air” – Allegory of the Elements

Author (engraver):
Thomas de Leu (Paris, ca. 1560 – 1612)

Inventor (drawing):
Antoine Charon (active between the late 16th and early 17th centuries)

Series:
Les Quatre Éléments (The Four Elements)

The scene represents a complex Mannerist allegory of the element Air, one of the four natural elements. At the center of the image is a naked, muscular man, stretched out and completely enveloped by large masses of clouds and vapors that surround him and suspend him in space. These forms, deliberately sculpted in wavy and spiraling lines, do not represent rocks or solid masses, but layers of condensed air, a graphic device used by Mannerist engravers to make the invisible visible.

The man is not crushed, but immersed in his element, a personification of Air itself. His relaxed, abandoned pose recalls late sixteenth-century allegories, in which the human figure becomes the symbolic body of the element it represents.

In the upper part of the scene, a celestial genius (or spirit of the air) appears, suspended among the clouds and carried by a large bird, probably an eagle. This figure, brandishing lightning bolts, represents the dominion of celestial spirits over atmospheric phenomena, completing the allegorical reading of the work.
The sheet is in excellent condition for its time. The paper is sound, the print is clear and well-contrasted, and the margins are complete. Minimal signs of aging consistent with the type and age of the engraving.

Applied to an old sheet see photo