Portret van Antoine Despeisses 1623

This 1623 engraving by Claude Mellan, "Portret van Antoine Despeisses", depicts a close-up portrait of Antoine Despeisses, a French lawyer and author. The image uses a single, continuous line to create a dramatic and highly detailed portrait, which is one of Mellan's signature techniques. This meticulous approach, a hallmark of his work, demonstrates the artist’s masterful control of line. The artwork is now held in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and measures 267 mm in height and 181 mm in width.