The subject of the Virgin and Child was one of Vouet’s most popular compositions. No fewer than twelve were engraved including this one which was recorded in 1638.  This composition exists in two versions, and several replicas, and was popular elsewhere - the Italian Baroque artist Sassoferrato adapting the engraving into an oil painting (Turin, Galleria Sabauda).  The image even appeared on a seventeenth century French watch face (Ecouen, Musée de Renaissance).  The Virgin holding the rose suggests a complex symbolism with the rose bearing thorns often been interpreted as a premonition of Christ’s own Crown of Thorns.   At the same time, the rose is also a symbol of Virginal purity and this is indicated in the caption of the engraving.  Vouet’s partiality to the subject was even remarked on by his biographer André Félibien (Entretiens sur vies et sur les ouvrages les plus excellens peintres anciens et modernes, Paris, 1685, vol. 2, p. 187).  ‘Vouet a fait un grand nombre de Vierges et avoit mesme un talent particulier pour les bien répresenter’.

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