Spectacle and Violence: The Prints of Jacques Callot (1592–1635)
Illustrator of both the splendors of court and the horrors of war, Callot was one of the most innovative and influential printmakers of the seventeenth century. Born in Nancy, France, in 1592, Callot spent the first half of his career in Florence before returning to his hometown in 1621. During the early seventeenth century, Florentine culture was dominated by the elaborate festivities of the Medici family, whereas Nancy was more closely affected by the destruction of the Thirty Years War (1618–1648).
The influence that these different environments had on Callot is exemplified by his two versions of the Temptation of Saint Anthony, shown here with other selections from Princeton’s extensive collection of Callot’s prints. In this rare impression of the first version (1616–17), Callot caricaturized the overindulgences of the Medici court, reinterpreting his depictions of festivals to represent temptation and sin. When Callot returned to the subject shortly before his death, the spectacle and excess of the first version were replaced with a more martial depiction of demonic sin.
Spanning three decades of Callot’s prolific career, these prints explore the ways in which his experiences in Florence and Nancy affected the conception and tone of his Temptation of Saint Anthony etchings. These prints in turn chart Callot’s artistic development as he moved from Florentine spectacle to northern violence.
Caitlin DiMartino
Muhlenberg College, Class of 2014
2014 Summer Intern