St John the Baptist in the Desert

Mellan developed a graphic technique where shadowing and building volume is not mediated by hatching but instead, by parallel lines of varying thickness. The given technique climaxed in the famous print The Veil of Veronica. The same method was employed by Mellan in some details of the presented engraving. The prolonged, uninterrupted and variously thick lines are also well discernible in some parts of the saint’s torso. The artist donated the work to Cardinal Francesco Barberini, one of the most influential Roman protectors of arts.