Claude Mellan (23 May 1598 – 9 September 1688) was a French draughtsman, engraver, and

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

.Brejon de Lavergnée 1996.

Early life and training

Mellan was born in

Abbeville Abbeville (, vls, Abbekerke, pcd, Advile) is a commune in the Somme department and in Hauts-de-France region in northern France. It is the chef-lieu of one of the arrondissements of Somme. Located on the river Somme, it was the capital of ...

, the son of a customs official.Strutt 1746. His first known print (Préaud no. 288), made for a thesis in theology at the Collège des Mathurins, shows that he was in Paris by 1619. His first teachers have not been identified, but his early engravings are thought to show the influence of

Léonard Gaultier Léonard Gaultier, or, as he sometimes signs himself, Galter, a French engraver, was born at Mainz about 1561, and died in Paris in 1641. Franz Brulliot, ''Dictionnaire des monogrammes, marques figurées, lettres initiales, noms abrégés etc: a ...

Rome

In 1624 Mellan went to Rome, where he studied engraving for a brief time with Francesco Villamena, who died that year. He then studied under

Simon Vouet Simon Vouet (; 9 January 1590 – 30 June 1649) was a French painter who studied and rose to prominence in Italy before being summoned by Louis XIII to serve as Premier peintre du Roi in France. He and his studio of artists created religious and m ...

, who had been in Rome since 1614. Vouet encouraged Mellan to draw, considering it essential for both engraving and painting. Mellan engraved some of Vouet's works and also began drawing small portraits from life. Many of his portrait drawings were never engraved. He developed a style that was simple and natural, that would be characteristic throughout his later career. Many of his engravings in Rome were reproductive works, including, for example, designs by

Pietro da Cortona Pietro da Cortona (; 1 November 1596 or 159716 May 1669) was an Italian Baroque painter and architect. Along with his contemporaries and rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, he was one of the key figures in the emergence of Roman ...

and

Gianlorenzo Bernini Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, , ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 159828 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor of his ...

. The few after his own designs include ''Saint Francis de Paul'' (Préaud no. 77) and the ''Penitent Magdalene'' (Préaud no. 113). The plates Mellan engraved in Rome were mostly executed in a conventional manner.

Later years in Paris

In 1637, after a period of time in

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...

with

Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1 December 1580 – 24 June 1637), often known simply as Peiresc, or by the Latin form of his name, Peirescius, was a French astronomer, antiquary and savant, who maintained a wide correspondence with scientis ...

, he returned to Paris, where he adopted an idiosyncratic technique, in which, instead of creating shade by cross-hatching, he used a system of parallel lines, regulating tone by varying their breadth and closeness. Joseph Strutt wrote:

The effect, which he produced by this method of engraving, is soft and clear. In single figures, and small subjects, he succeeded very happily; but in large subjects, where great depth of shadow was required, he has failed....

Particularly notable is his engraving ''The Face of Christ'' (1649; Préaud no. 21), also called the ''Sudarium of Saint Veronica'' (see

Veil of Veronica The Veil of Veronica, or (Latin for sweat-cloth), also known as the Vernicle and often called simply the Veronica, is a Christian relic consisting of a piece of cloth said to bear an image of the Holy Face of Jesus produced by other than human ...

), created from a single spiralling line that starts at the tip of Jesus's nose. During this later period in Paris, Mellan mostly engraved his own work. He was much sought after as a portrait artist, drawing from life and engraving the portraits. Among his subjects were members of the royal family of Bourbon. His drawings "reveal more variety of style and execution than he showed in the engravings." Two examples, for which both a drawing (

Nationalmuseum, Stockholm Nationalmuseum (or National Museum of Fine Arts) is the national gallery of Sweden, located on the peninsula Blasieholmen in central Stockholm. The museum's operations stretches far beyond the borders of Blasieholmen, the nationalmuseum manage ...

) and an engraving exist, are portraits of Marie-Louise de Gonzague-Nevers (Préaud no. 167) and Henri de Savoie, Duc de Nemours (Préaud no. 182). He also created large religious works with geometric layouts and poses. According to Barbara Brejon de Lavergnée, writing in ''

The Dictionary of Art ''Grove Art Online'' is the online edition of ''The Dictionary of Art'', often referred to as the ''Grove Dictionary of Art'', and part of Oxford Art Online, an internet gateway to online art reference publications of Oxford University Press, ...

'', Mellan's use of the single line gives "an abstract effect" and, "as an engraver he proved sensitive to the classical ideal developed by

Nicolas Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for a ...

Jacques Stella Jacques Stella (1596 – 29 April 1657) was a French painter, a leading exponent of the neoclassical style of Parisian Atticism. Life Stella was born in Lyon. His father was François Stella, a painter and merchant of Flemish origin, but ...

and others in Paris in the middle of the 17th century." Among Mellan's reproductive engravings are two frontispieces for religious works after designs by Poussin (1640; Préaud no. 294) and Stella (1641; Préaud no. 296).

Anatole de Montaiglon Anatole de Courde de Montaiglon (28 November 1824 – 1 September 1895) was a 19th-century French librarian and art historian. Biography In 1850, De Montaignon graduated as an archivist and palaeographer from the École des chartes, with a the ...

catalogued 400 engravings by Mellan,Montaiglon 1856, cited by Brejon de Lavergnée 1996. and about 100 drawings are known. The latter are mostly in the Stockholm Nationalmuseum (via the collection of Carl Gustav Tessin) and the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg (via the Cobenzl collection). Several of Mellan's lost paintings are known from his engravings of them, including ''Samson and Delilah'' (Préaud no. 5) and ''Saint John the Baptist in the Desert'' (Préaud no. 84). A few other paintings were attributed to him, beginning in the 1970s, but these have not been generally accepted. He died in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Notes

Bibliography

* Brejon de Lavergnée, Barbara (1996). "Mellan, Claude", vol. 21, pp. 85–86, in ''

'', 34 volumes, edited by Jane Turner. New York: Grove. . Also a
Oxford Art Online
(subscription required). * Chilvers, Ian, editor (2009). ''The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists'', 4th edition. . . * Montaiglon, Anatole de (1856). ''Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre de Claude Mellan d’Abbeville''. Abbeville: P. Briez
Copy
at Google Books. * Préaud, Maxime (1988). ''Inventaire du fonds français: graveurs du dix-septième siècle. Tome 17, Claude Mellan''. Paris: Bibliothèque nationale. . * Strutt, Joseph (1786)
"Claude Mellan", vol. 2, pp. 142–144
in ''A Biographical Dictionary Containing an Historical Account of All the Engravers, From the Earliest Period of the Art of Engraving to the Present Day''. London: Robert Faulder. Vols
1
an
2
at Google Books.

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