Jacques Callot

The ducal family of Lorraine commissioned this print, the largest single-plate etching that Callot created, to commemorate the defense of a physics thesis by Nicolas-

François of Lorraine, the younger brother of Duke Charles IV of Lorraine. It glorifies the family patriarch, François de Vaudemont, who appears airborne upon a winged

horse at the top of the composition, surrounded by four figures proclaiming his Paternal Piety. Below him is the young Nicolas-François in episcopal robes (as he

was recently named Archbishop of Toul), surrounded by Physiologia and Uranologia, and then by figures of Filial Piety corresponding to his father’s virtues above. The

academic theses printed in letterpress at the bottom of the composition make yet another reference to the scholar’s father, as the first letters of each sentence form the name: “Francisco a lotharingia” (François of Lorraine). Callot’s print makes a clear, visual statement about the dynastic strengths and virtues that pass from father to son.