
1555
Jean Duvet portrayed himself as John the Evangelist in this frontispiece to the Apocalypse. He holds an engraver’s burin and has inscribed his name on the arched, copperplate-like tablet at his left: “Jean Duvet, goldsmith of Langres, aged seventy, has completed these histories in 1555.” Duvet’s attribute is not the eagle, but rather a menacing swan. Swimming toward him with an arrow in his beak, the bird and the ship of the three Fates above it bear ill tidings: “Death is upon me and my hands tremble, my sight fails, yet the spirit remains victorious and I have completed my great work.”