Portrait of Nicolas Fouquet

This 1661 engraving depicts Nicolas Fouquet, superintendent of finances under Louis XIV and builder of the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte. His personal motto, "Quo non ascendam" ("how high shall I not climb?"), adorned his coat of arms beneath a squirrel and summed up his dazzling ambition. Arrested on the king's order on 5 September 1661, weeks after the sumptuous festivities held at Vaux, Fouquet would end his life imprisoned in the fortress of Pignerol, a victim of his rivalry with Colbert.