Claude Mellan

Though his first work as an artist was made in Paris, in 1624 Mellan left for Rome, where he engraved works by Simon Vouet (1590–1649), an important influence on him, as well as by Pietro da Cortona (1596–1669) and Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598–1680). In Rome, he developed a specialty in portrait drawings that continued on his return to Paris in 1637; his sitters included members of the French royal family. Besides portraits, his engraved work includes religious and devotional subjects, after his own designs or those of Nicolas Poussin and Jacques Stella. Above all Mellan is renowned for his technical virtuosity, which he applied to classical ideals of refinement, restraint and formal solidity. His most famous print is the Sainte Face, or Face of Christ, a virtuosic work engraved with one continuous line.