St Mary Magdalene the Penitent lying in a cave

Claude Mellan was born in Abbeville in northern France to a family of coppersmiths. By 1619 he was in Paris where he studied engraving and appears also to have been active as a portrait painter. He travelled to Rome in 1624 to study with the engraver Francesco Villamena, who died not long after his arrival. However, he soon came under the powerful influence of the French expatriate painter Simon Vouet, who encouraged him to make chalk portrait drawings, which became something of Mellan’s speciality. While in Rome, he also practised extensively as an engraver, reproducing the works of Vouet and Bernini in particular. Returning to France in 1636, Mellan found an eager clientele for his restrained yet technically astonishing engravings – which dispense with cross-hatching and outlines altogether – and embarked upon the official phase of his career, with varied prestigious commissions culminating in his appointment as engraver to the king.

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. His drawings "reveal more variety of style and execution than he showed in the engravings." He also created large religious works with geometric layouts and poses. According to Barbara Brejon de Lavergnée, writing in the Grove Dictionary of Art, 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, Jacques Stella and others in Paris in the middle of the 17th century."

Anatole de Montaiglon catalogued 400 engravings by Mellan, and about 100 drawings are known, located mostly in the Stockholm Nationalmuseum and the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg.

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This engraving was inspired by a painting of the Penitent Mary Magdalene by the major Italian baroque artist Orazio Gentileschi, father of the still more famous Artemesia; a version is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna and dates from 1625-26, not long after Mellan had arrived in Rome. A preparatory drawing by Mellan is in the Musée Boucher de Perthes, Abbeville, his native town. The half-naked and still young and beautiful Mary Magdalene is depicted in a massive cave setting, her mournful gaze looking heavenwards, no doubt filled with thoughts of Jesus. The usual attributes in this theme of a crucifix shaped cross and a skull are prominently rendered.

The engraving is in the so-called King George IV album of Old Master prints, acquired by the Dominion Museum in 1910.

Sources:

British Museum Collection online, https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1347955&partId=1&searc hText=mellan+mary+magdalene&page=1

Wikipedia, 'Claude Mellan', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Mellan

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art   November 2018