Les Caprices (three prints) - Jacques Callot, Nancy 1621

Comprising fifty pieces, the Caprices suite is one of Jacques Callot's most famous works. Engraved in Florence around 1617, when he was a resident of Cosmes II de Medici, he didn't take the copperplates with him when he returned to Lorraine in 1621. As a result, the series had to be reproduced identically in Nancy. The three prints we present were printed on this second matrix, in its first state.
Our Florentine peregrination begins with a visit to Florence's Piazza del Duomo (L. 259, 473), in front of which a gentleman observes the cathedral and campanile to his right, while a gallant crowd bustles about in front of him. We continue on to Florence's Ponte Vecchio (L. 220, 434), beneath which nude men are bathing, and whose perspective leads to the Ponte alle Grazie. The walk ends with a game of Jeu de paume in Piazza Santa Croce (L. 263, 477), whose players are encouraged by a soldier playing a drum. The eclecticism of this panorama, in terms of both style and subject matter, immerses us in the Florence of the 1610s.

With their charming Baroque exuberance, these engravings feature subjects that would later become recurrent in Callot's visual repertoire. On the one hand, the Commedia dell'arte-inspired costumes and Mannerist gestures of the figures inevitably recall his Balli di Sfessania series (c. 1620-22). On the other hand, the overall composition foreshadows the famous Foire de l'Impruneta (c. 1620). Nevertheless, his real tour de force consists in making a world of small figures evolve in a restricted space. Callot achieved this by combining several innovations he had previously perfected. The use of cabinetmakers' hard varnish for successive bites in the acid, the creation of single cuts instead of cross cuts, and finally the use of the recumbent scoop instead of the point to achieve full and smooth strokes, enabled the engraver to write on copper as the draftsman would on paper. Henceforth, the aquafortist competes with the burinist by opposing the latter with an added spontaneity of line.

Our three etchings are presented in a white marie-louise with anti-reflective glass, in a Berain-style frame.
Overall dimensions: 43 x 26 cm

Biography:
Born into a family of goldsmiths from Lorraine, Jacques Callot (Nancy, March 1592 - Id, March 25, 1635) began his apprenticeship in this artisan environment, before discovering the art of copper engraving in Rome in 1610. Arriving in Florence in 1612, he perfected new techniques that would have a lasting impact on the history of engraving. Returning to Nancy after the death of Cosmo II de' Medici, he became engraver to the court of the Dukes of Lorraine. The Thirty Years' War, which was ravaging Europe at the time, inspired his series on the miseries of war, which made him famous among the greatest princes. The Infanta Isabella of Austria and Louis XIII commissioned him to immortalize their military victories. On his death, he left behind an immense corpus of nearly 1,400 compositions that would make him one of the most copied and disseminated artists of his time.

Bibliography :
- BERSIER, Jean-E., La gravure : les procédés, l'histoire, 4th ed, Paris, Berger-Levrault, 1984.
- Jacques Callot 1592-1635, Paulette Choné (dir.), (cat. exp. Nancy, Musée historique lorrain, June 13 - September 14, 1992), Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1992.
- LIEURE, Jules, Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre gravé, two volumes, San Francisco, Alan Wofsy fine arts, 1989, 1st ed. 1929.
- SADOUL, Georges, Jacques Callot, Miroir de son temps, Paris, Gallimard, 1969.