A Single Stroke That Stunned Viewers
In 1649, French engraver Claude Mellan created an image that left Paris audiences astonished. “The Sudarium of Saint Veronica,” his portrait of Christ’s face on a veil, was unlike anything seen before. It was engraved with a single spiraling line, starting at the tip of the nose.
No Cross-Hatching, No Correction
Mellan had developed a technique using modulated parallel lines, but this piece broke even that mold. The entire face was shaped using one uninterrupted groove that thickened and thinned to suggest light and shadow. There was no shading or cross-hatching—just one line spiraling outward.
Signed on the Center
Instead of signing at the margin, Mellan placed his name and the Latin phrase “Formatur Unica” (“formed by one”) right at the nose—the line’s origin. Viewers could trace the entire drawing from that starting point, witnessing the uninterrupted path of Mellan’s burin.
Housed in Paris
The original copperplate still exists and is preserved at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Mellan, already renowned in his time, had created an engraving so technically daring it remains a subject of study centuries later.
In 1649, Paris audiences were stunned by an engraving unlike any other.
Claude Mellan’s ‘The Sudarium of Saint Veronica’ depicted Christ’s face in an unthinkable way: it was made from a single spiraling line, starting at the tip of the nose…🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/JhoLoKIbXU
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