The Great Lansquenet or Standard Bearer. Artist: Prince Rupert of the Rhine (Bohemian, Prague 1619-1682 Westminster); after Pietro Muttoni, called della Vecchia (Italian, Venice 1602/3-1678 Venice). Dimensions: Sheet: 11 x 7 7/8 in. (27.9 x 20 cm). Date: 1658.Prince Rupert of the Rhine (son of the exiled Frederick V of Bohemia) was one of the earliest practitioners of mezzotint, and a vital contributor to its development. Rupert met Ludwig von Siegen (the technique's inventor) in 1654, but did not attempt his own mezzotints until 1657. He made this impressive print the following year. He began by roughening his plate with a serrated-edged hatcher (a prototype of the modern mezzotint "rocker") to make the parallel shading lines at the upper left of the sheet, and the toothed wheel of a roulette (apparently attached to a pivoted pole) to form the dotlike texture of the man's skin. Next, he sliced away the metal burr with a sharp-edged scraper, and polished it with a smooth-tipped burnis