Saint Peter Nolasque
1627
Medium
Engraving; second state of two (BN)
Dimensions
sheet: 18 15/16 x 13 9/16 in. (48.1 x 34.4 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949
Accession Number
49.50.15
Tags
Art Historical Context
Claude Mellan's *Saint Peter Nolasque (1627) is a striking Baroque engraving that captures the founder of the Order of the Mercedarians, a religious order dedicated to ransoming Christian captives from Muslim enslavement during the medieval Reconquista. Printed in the second state of two (as noted in the Bibliothèque Nationale catalog), this large sheet—measuring nearly 19 by 14 inches—depicts the saint amid angels, evoking divine protection and spiritual fervor central to Counter-Reformation art. Mellan, a master engraver active in Rome and Paris, was renowned for his virtuoso line work, ach...
About the Artist
Claude Mellan · 1598–1688
Claude Mellan (1598-1688) was a French draughtsman, engraver, and painter who became one of the most innovative printmakers of the French Baroque period. Born in Abbeville to a family of coppersmiths, Mellan rose to become Peintre et Graveur Ordinaire du Roi (Painter and Engraver in Ordinary to the King), achieving recognition for his extraordinary technical mastery. Mellan's artistic significanc...