Cleveland Museum of Art
St. Francis
Claude MellanLinkedCulture matchlcp-35d4854a5c12
- Date
- 1638
- Medium
- engraving
- Culture
- France
- Department
- Prints
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 668222
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
The French engraver Claude Mellan spent time in Rome, where he developed a unique engraving style that uses simplified linear patterns and swelled lines to create optical, almost abstract effects. He made this image St. Francis , one of several featuring saints in the wilderness, just after he returned to Paris. The engraver’s inventive patterns of lines cross at small angles, creating moiré effects, so that the surface seems to shimmer. Notice how the engraver portrayed the cloak of St. Francis with patches of parallel, swelled lines placed at different angles.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- James Parmelee Fund
- Provenance
- Private collection, France | ?–2023: (C.G. Boerner, New York and Dusseldorf), sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH | December 4, 2023–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
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