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Introduction

Jacques Callot and the Baroque Print

June 17 - November 6, 2011

One of the most prolific and versatile graphic artists in Western art history, the French printmaker Jacques Callot created over 1,400 prints by the time he died in 1635 at the age of forty-three. With subjects ranging from the frivolous festivals of princes to the grim consequences of war, Callot’s mixture of reality and fanciful imagination inspired artists from Rembrandt van Rijn in his own era to Francisco de Goya two hundred years later. In these galleries, Callot’s works are shown next to those of his contemporaries to gain a deeper understanding of his influence.
Born into a noble family in 1592 in Nancy in the Duchy of Lorraine (now France), Callot traveled to Rome at the age of sixteen to learn printmaking. By 1614, he was in Florence working for Cosimo II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. After the death of the Grand Duke in 1621, Callot returned to Nancy, where he entered the service of the dukes of Lorraine and made prints for other European monarchs and the Parisian publisher Israël Henriet.
Callot perfected the stepped etching technique, which consisted of exposing copperplates to multiple acid baths while shielding certain areas from the chemical with a hard, waxy ground (see the book illustration in the adjoining gallery). This process contributed to different depths of etched lines and thus striking light and spatial qualities when the plate was inked and printed. Callot may have invented the échoppe, a tool with a curved tip that he used to sweep through the hard ground to create curved and swelled lines in imitation of engraving. Many of Callot’s contemporaries adopted his laborious process, while others exploited etching’s inherently freer line.
In Callot’s theatrical world of princes, paupers, dancers, and dwarves, virtue and evil coexist. Its inhabitants pursue peaceful or frivolous pleasures in one moment only to be confronted with — or perpetrate — torturous death in the next. Callot’s stage-like compositions might distance us from direct emotional confrontation, but they emphasize life as a performance: one in which humankind’s edifying qualities exist alongside the ridiculous and grotesque.

Selected Objects

Abraham Bosse, designer

L' Autône (Autumn), ca.1635-1637

Jacques Callot, designer

La Roue, 1633

Jacques Callot, designer

L'Exercice de la Lance Horizontale (Exercise of the Horizontal Lance), 1635

Claude Vignon, designer

The Martyrdom of St. Andrew, 1618-1670

Jacques Callot, designer

L' Enrolement des Troupes, 1633

Jacques Callot, designer

Vols Sur les Grands Chemins, 1633

Wenceslaus Hollar, designer

Zu Collen (Toward Cologne), 1635

Wenceslaus Hollar, designer

Zu Collen (Toward Cologne), 1635

Wenceslaus Hollar, designer

Zu Duren (Toward Duren), 1635

Wenceslaus Hollar, designer

Zu Wesel (Toward Wesel), 1635

Nicolas Cochin, designer

Ager, 1647, En Catalogne (Ager, 1647, in Catalonia), 1647

Jacques Callot, designer

Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, ca. 1631-1633

Jacques Callot, designer

The Triumph of the Virgin, or, The Small Thesis, 1625

Jacques Callot

Turk Seen from the Front, Right Hand on Hip (Le Turc Vu de Face, Levant le Bras Droit), ca. 1621-1624

Jacques Bellange, designer

Martyrdom of St. Lucy, 1613-1616

Jacques Callot, designer

Entrée de Monseigneur le Prince de Pfaltzbourg Tenant au Combat (Entry of the Prince of Phalsbourg, Champion of the Combat), 1627

Jacques Callot, designer

L'Exercice de l'Arquebuse: Le Chargement (The Exercise of the Arquebus: Loading), 1635

Jacques Callot, designer

L'Exercice de la Lance Verticale (Exercise of the Vertical Lance), 1635

Jacques Callot, designer

L'Exercice de l'Arquebuse: La Preparation au Tir (The Exercise of the Arquebus: Preparation to Fire), 1635

Jacques Callot

Frontispiece, 1622

Jacques Callot, designer

Entrée des Sieurs de Vroncourt, Tyllon et Marimont (Entry of Monsieurs de Vroncourt, Tyllon, and Marimont), 1627

Jacques Callot, designer

Entrée de Son Altesse Representant le Soleil (Entry of His Highness, Representing the Sun), 1627

Jacques Callot, designer

Découverte des Malfaiteurs, 1633

Jacques Callot, designer

Le Joueur de Violon (Violin player), 1622

Johann Theodor de Bry, designer

Procession of Soldiers, 1576-1623

François Collignon, designer

Untitled, 1631-1637

Jacques Callot, designer

Le Buveur Vu de Face (Drinker from the Front), 1622

Jusepe de Ribera, designer

Lamentation of Christ, 1600s

Rembrandt van Rijn

View of Amsterdam from the Kadijk, ca. 1641

Jacques Callot, designer

L' Hôpital, 1633

Abraham Bosse, designer

L'Hyver (Winter), ca. 1635-1637

Jacques Callot, designer

Martyre de St. André (Martyrdom of St. Andrew), 1600s

Jacques Callot, designer

Les Mendiants et les Mourants, 1633

Jacques Callot, designer

L'Estropié au Capuchon (Cripple in a Cap), 1622

Jacques Callot, designer

Entrée de Monsieur de Macey (Entry of Monsieur de Macey), 1627

Jacques Callot, designer

L'Homme au Gros Dos Orné d'une Rangée de Boutons (Man with Fat Back and Row of Buttons), 1616

François Collignon, designer

Untitled, 1631-1637

Jacques Callot, designer

Le Bucher, 1633

Jacques Callot, designer

Le Bossu à la Canne (Hunchback with a Cane), 1622

Jacques Callot, designer

L'Homme au Ventre Tombant et au Chapeau très Élevé (Man with the Falling Stomach and Very High Hat), 1622

Jacques Callot, designer

Le Buveur Vu de Dos (Drinker from the Rear), 1622

Jacques Callot, designer

L'Homme au Gros Ventre Orné d'une Rangée de Boutons (Man with Pot Belly and Row of Buttons), 1622

Jacques Callot, designer

Le Duelliste à l'Epée et au Paignard (Duelist with Sword and Dagger), 1622

Jacques Callot, designer

Le Bancal Jouant de la Guitare (Lopsided man playing the Guitar), 1622

Jacques Callot, designer

Le Joueur de Flageolet (Flageolet Player), 1622

Jacques Callot, designer

L'Homme Masqué aux Jambes Torses (Masked man with Crooked Legs), 1622

Jacques Callot

Turk Seen from the Front, Right Hand on Hip (Le Turc Vu de Face, Levant le Bras Droit), ca. 1621-1624

Jacques Callot, designer

Entrée de Monseigneur Henry de Lorraine Marquis de Moy Soubs le Nom de Pirandre (Entry of Monseigneur Henry de Lorraine, Marquis de Moy, under the Name of Pirandre), 1627

Jacques Callot, designer

Pillage et Incendie d' Un Village, 1633
No Image Available

Jan Georg van Vliet, designer

Peddler, 1632

Jacques Callot, designer

Le Bataille, 1633

Jacques Callot, designer

Le Marché d'Esclaves (La Petite Vue de Paris) (The Slave Market), 1629

Jacques Callot, designer

Martyre de St. Paul (Martyrdom of St. Paul), 1600s

François Collignon, designer

Untitled, 1631-1637

Adriaen van Ostade, designer

The Organ Grinder, 1647

Jacques Callot, designer

Combat à la Barrière (Combat at the Barrier), 1627

François Collignon, designer

Untitled, 1631-1637

Jacques Callot, designer

Mort de Judas (Death of Judas), 1600s

Jacques Callot

The Stag Hunt (La Chasse), 1619

Jacques Callot, designer

La Maraude, 1633

Jacques Callot, designer

L' Estrapade, 1633

Jacques Callot, designer

Frontispiece, 1633

Jacques Callot, designer

Le Pillage, 1633

Jacques Callot, designer

Devastion d' un Monastère, 1633

Jacques Callot

The Hanging (La Pendaison), 1633

Jacques Callot, designer

L' Arquebusade, 1633

Jacques Callot, designer

La Revanche des Paysans, 1633

Jacques Callot, designer

Distribution de Recompenses, 1633

Hendrik Goudt, designer

Tobias and the Angel (The Large Tobias), 1613

Antonio Tempesta, designer

Battle Scene, 1605-1621

Jacques Callot, designer

La Grande Thése (The Large Thesis), 1625

Jacques Callot, designer

Combat de Veillane (The Battle of Avigliana), ca. 1630

Jacques Callot, designer

The Temptation of St. Anthony, second version, 1635

Jacques Callot, designer

Martyre de St. Simon (Martyrdom of St. Simon), 1600s

Jacques Callot

Les Martyrs du Japon, (The Martyrs of Japan), ca. 1627

Jacques Callot, designer

Cet Entrée Est le Monsieur le Comte de Brionne Grand Chambelan de son Altesse, Representant Jason (Entry of Monsieur the Count of Brionne, Grand Chamberlain of His Highness, Representing Jason), 1627

Jacques Callot, designer

Entrée de Son Altesse à Pied (Entry of His Highness on Foot) (The Foot Parade)), 1627

Jacques Callot

Beggar with Crutches and Wallet, ca. 1622-1623

Claude Lorrain, designer

The Harbor with the Large Tower, ca. 1641

Abraham Bosse

On the Manner of Etching with Acid and with a Burin, and of Dark-Manner Engraving, 1645

Abraham Bosse, designer

Le Printemps (Spring), ca. 1635-1637

Giovanni Battista Mercati, designer

The Executioner Presenting the Head of St. John the Baptist to Salome, 1626

Jacques Callot, designer

Entrée de Monseigneur de Couvonge de de Monsieur de Chalabre (Entry of Monsieurs de Couvonge and de Chalabre), 1627

Abraham Bosse, designer

L'Esté (Summer), ca. 1635-1637

Jacques Bellange

Military Figures outside a City, 1612-1616

Stefano Della Bella, printmaker

Quadrille of Horses and Wagons around the Mountain of Atlas: The Horse Ballet in the Conjoined Theater at the Palace of His Highness the Grand Duke of Tuscany, from the book, 1661

Jacques Callot

Soliman, Act I, 1620

Israël Silvestre the younger

Troisiesme Journée: Theatre dressé au milieu du grand estang representant l'Isle d'Alcine (Third Day: Theater set amidst the great pond representing the Isle d'Alcine), 1664

More objects +

Exhibition Checklist

Jacques Callot and the Baroque Print

June 17 - November 6, 2011
View Checklist PDF

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