A fine chiaroscuro woodcut by Nicolas Le Sueur, depicting Christ among the apostles, based on a drawing by Raffaellino del Colle.

This chiaroscuro woodcut by Nicolas Le Sueur depicts a scene of Christ surrounded by his apostles. The work belongs to the Recueil Crozat, a massive project intended to document the finest drawings held in French private collections, specifically that of Pierre Crozat. Le Sueur was a master of the chiaroscuro technique, which uses multiple woodblocks to create tonal variations, mimicking the appearance of wash drawings or sketches.

The composition is based on a drawing by Raffaellino del Colle, a Mannerist painter who worked under Raphael. The figures are arranged in a semi-circular formation within a classical architectural setting, defined by coffered ceilings and simple pilasters. The focus remains on the central figure of Christ, whose gesture and posture anchor the group. The monochromatic palette, rendered in shades of ochre and sepia, provides a sense of unity and historical gravity to the scene.

Le Sueur’s execution demonstrates a high level of technical precision. The lines are clean and deliberate, defining the folds of the drapery and the expressions of the figures without unnecessary clutter. By translating a preparatory drawing into a print, Le Sueur preserved the immediacy of the original artist's hand while making the image accessible to a wider audience of collectors and scholars. The inclusion of the original inscription at the base of the print provides provenance, noting the source drawing by Raffaellino del Colle and its location in the Crozat collection. This piece is an example of the sophisticated printmaking traditions in eighteenth-century France, where the reproduction of master drawings became a discipline in its own right.