The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (308 page)

(
c.
1475–1550/1).
German sculptor. He was born at Worms and in 1506–10 worked at the court of Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony, at Wittenberg, collaborating with
Cranach
. Soon afterwards he moved to the Netherlands, where he worked as court sculptor to the Habsburg rulers for most of his career. His work included a number of large monuments, but his most characteristic sculptures are small figures and portraits, most notably sensuous free-standing nudes such as the well-known
Judith
(Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich,
c.
1510–15). In these he created a distinctive type of German
Renaissance
sculpture, combining Italian idealism with northern particularity of detail.

 
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(1716–80).
Spanish still-life painter, active mainly in Madrid. He is regarded as the finest Spanish painter in his speciality in the 18th cent. and is sometimes called ‘the Spanish
Chardin
’, but he spent much of his life in poverty. His work is rare outside Spain, but there is an example in the National Gallery in London and the Louvre, Paris, has a striking self-portrait.

 
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(1598–1688).
French engraver. One of the most renowned and successful engravers of his period, he is best known for his portraits, but also made prints after
Poussin
and
Vouet
, for example. He was a technical virtuoso and instead of using cross-
hatching
he obtained his effects of light and shade by varying the thickness of his lines. The most famous example of his prowess is his
Sudarium of St Veronica
(1642), a portrait of Christ made up of a single continuous spiral line that goes round from the centre to the edge like the groove on a gramophone record. Mellan also painted, but few of his pictures survive.

 
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(1855–1937).
American businessman, public official, art collector, and philanthropist. A banker and steel, coke, and oil magnate, he became secretary to the US treasury (1921–32), ambassador to England (1932–3), and one of the richest men in the world. In 1937 he donated his collection (particularly rich in Dutch and English painting) to the nation, together with funds to build a gallery to house them, thus creating the National Gallery of Art in Washington. His son,
Paul Mellon
(1907– ), is also one of the greatest collectors of his generation, his main field of interest being British art. In 1966 he founded the Yale Center for British Art at New Haven. Opened in 1977, the Center is not only a major gallery, but also a research institution, with important collections of books and photographs. The Paul Mellon Foundation for British Art was established in London in 1962. It is a charitable trust whose purpose is to advance the study of British painting, sculpture, and the graphic arts, mainly by sponsorship of publications and support of research.

 
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(1438–94).
Italian painter from Forlì in the Romagna, active mainly in Loreto, Rome, and Urbino. He was an attractive and idiosyncratic painter who achieved a high reputation in his time, but little of his work survives intact and he has been a neglected figure until fairly recently. His style was indebted to
Piero della Francesca
and he was renowned for his skill in
perspective
and
illusionism
; he was, indeed, credited with being the inventor of the extreme form of foreshortening known as
sotto in su
, of which
Mantegna
was another great exponent. Melozzo's skill in this field is seen in his fresco of the
Ascension
(1478–80) for the dome of SS. Apostoli in Rome, fragments of which are in the Quirinal Palace and the Vatican.

 
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