Callot, Jacques

(1592-1635)

   engraver, etcher

   Born in Nancy, Jacques Callot is considered an important and influential innovator in both the technique and the subject matter of printmaking. He first studied in Italy, where later, as a court printmaker to the Medicis (1612-21), he developed a new etching medium (a linseed oil and mastic varnish), the texture of which would make possible greater detail and fineness. This innovation later facilitated the work of other great etchers of the period, including Rembrandt. In such works as his Foire de l'Impruneta (1620), Callot became one of the first artists to depict a complete cross section of the society of the time. He returned to France in 1621, where he produced works for louis x III (Siège de la Rochelle; Siège de Saint-Martin-de-Ré). After this period, Callot adopted a more realistic and less courtly style. His masterpieces are the two series, each entitled Les Misères et Malheurs de la guerre (both 1633), in which he removed any glory or romance from the acts of warfare by showing it as a merciless distress for the common people. An artist with a wide repertoire, however, Callot has among his lighter subjects the figures Razullo et Cucurucu and Scaramuche et Fricasso. Callot's prints were especially admired in the 19th century by the romantics.