Pair of 17th C French Engravings Hyacinthe and Hyemplis

An exceptional framed pair of original French engravings, late 17th century, depicting Hyacinthe and Hyemplis. Each portrait is finely engraved within an oval cartouche and inscribed with verses in French.

Subjects: Hyacinthe (profile of a woman in bonnet) and Hyemplis (portrait of a young boy in tunic).

• Cultural Context: These rare works reflect early French ethnographic and allegorical portraiture, produced for collectors and curiosités cabinets.
• Presentation: Both engravings are preserved together in a single antique black frame with a neutral mat, allowing them to be viewed as intended companions.

What We Know

1. The 1659 Engraving
2. The print you found (and the NYPL example) is inscribed "Hyanisbe" (sometimes "Hyempsal") and depicts a Black woman, praised for her

"ebony beauty." The accompanying verses link her beauty to cosmic order - light and dark, roses and lilies (symbols of England and France).

1. Elizabeth Bearden's Research
2. In The Emblematics of the Self: Ekphrasis and Identity in Renaissance Imitations of Greek Romance (2012), Bearden traces how Queen Hyanisbe was invoked by Europeans as an "other" mirror of Elizabeth I.

• She appears as a counterpart to Elizabeth I in allegorical writing.
• Her "ebony beauty" is explicitly contrasted with white European ideals — a rare textual acknowledgement of Black female beauty in Renaissance/Baroque visual culture.
• Some texts suggest she resembled Elizabeth I, blending race and allegory in ways that confuse categories of identity.

5. Name Origin

• The name "Hyanisbe" (or "Hyempsal") doesn't correspond to a documented historical queen.
• It may be derived from Greco-Roman or African-sounding names used by European writers to lend exoticism.
• Think of her less as a biographical figure and more as a constructed emblem — like Britannia or Marianne - but racialized

What She Represents

• Blackness as beauty: She's described with admiration — "surpassing roses and lilies."
• Political allegory: Roses = England, Lilies = France - her beauty transcends European power symbols.
• Cultural contradiction: While Europeans often "whitened" allegorical queens, this engraving deliberately affirms her Blackness.

In Short

Queen Hyanisbe wasn't a flesh-and-blood queen with a reign and a court.

She was a 17th-century emblematic figure, likely imagined by European poets and artists, who came to embody both the exotic and the divine. Her portrait is important because it resists the erasure of Blackness in Renaissance iconography — and that's why scholars like Bearden highlight

• The engraving: Dated 1659, the print shows "Hyanisbe," but without a clear attribution.
• French inscription: Roughly translates into an ode to her "ebony beauty, which surpasses that of roses and lilies."
• Cultural context: In Bearden's The Emblematics of the Self, Hyanisbe is described as a sort of analog to Elizabeth I, but also thought to resemble her. The kicker is that while Europeans of the 16th-17th centuries often reimagined figures like Hyanisbe as white women, the print here explicitly links her to "ebony beauty," pushing back on that erasure.
• Symbolism: The "roses and lilies" are not random - roses often symbolize Britain, lilies symbolize France (the fleur-de-lys). The text basically says Hyanisbe's beauty transcends both.
• Bearden's point: The image challenges the Renaissance/Baroque trend of whitening historical or allegorical figures. Instead, it affirms a Black queen's beauty at the center of European symbolic language.

Original French

"Et mon ébène et mon ivoire surpassent les roses et les lys."

Polished English Translation

"My ebony and my ivory surpass the roses and the lilies."

Notes on Symbolism

Ebony & ivory → contrast of dark and light beauty, often used as poetic metaphors for complexion.Roses & lilies → stand-ins for England (roses) and France (lilies/

fleur-de-lys). The line essentially says: Hyanisbe's beauty transcends the iconic national emblems of both England and France.

Text on the print:

"A fin de m'embellir, les Cieux Ont mis leur ardeur en usage.

Je porte le jour dans les yeux, Et la nuict dans le visage."

Literal Translation

"In order to adorn me, the heavens Have put forth all their ardor.

I carry the day in my eyes, And the night upon my face."

Dimensions: (sight) each approx. 7 x 5.5 in. (17.7 x 14 cm); frame overall approx. 16 x 12 in. (40.6 x 30.5 cm)

Condition: Age toning and light foxing, consistent with 17th-century prints. Very fine and well-presented.

Provenance: Private collection.