L’univers comme alphabet

The author began his career at the Cabinet des Estampes of Geneva before becoming the curator of various Swiss institutions, among them the Planque collection, deposited until 2025 at the Granet museum in Aix-en-Provence. In an elegant language he expresses his love for drawing and for engraving, a “grammatical” form of art that follows a strict syntax of lines, bites and traits. Next to the stars of the discipline – Rembrandt or Lorrain – we discover half-forgotten artists such as Claude Mellan (XVIIth century), a virtuoso of lines that never cross one another or Albert-Edgar Yersin, an experienced engraver of stamps and bank notes, a demanding discipline that makes no one famous. A few criticisms punctuate the book, such as the one of the astronomic prices of sculptures by Giacometti, an artist who looked down on material pleasures. Through the market his work sits next to the tulip bulbs of the Dutch Golden age in the catalogue on senseless speculations.

• L’univers comme alphabet, by Florian Rodari, Gallimard, 2016, 264 p., €23.