Porträt der Virginia de Vezzo da Velletri 1626

This drawing of Virginia de Vezzo was made by Claude Mellan, most likely in the mid-seventeenth century, using black chalk on paper. What’s fascinating here is the level of control Mellan achieves with such an unassuming material. Chalk is basically just compressed earth, the same stuff you might find in the ground when digging in your backyard. Yet, it’s been refined into a tool capable of capturing minute variations in light and shadow. Notice how Mellan uses the chalk to render the soft, almost porous texture of skin, and how the hatching suggests the delicate folds of fabric. Think about the social context: drawing was a key skill for artists in this period, a way of planning larger compositions, but also an intimate medium, well-suited to portraiture. By looking closely at the artist’s technique, and respecting the inherent qualities of the chalk, we see the art differently, shifting our appreciation away from the simple likeness of the sitter to the more meaningful encounter with the artist’s hand.