The Card Game, or the Prodigal Son,

1628

In this richly shadowed etching, the son gambles away his inheritance among a cast of shady characters, complete with daggers and swords at their sides. Though this scene could easily be interpreted as a generic representation of gamblers, the Latin inscription encircling the print indicates that it is an illustration of the debauched lifestyle of the prodigal son. Given the increasing popularity of genre paintings—images which depict everyday life and common activities without religious pretext—the unspecified nature of the debauchery, referred to in the Bible simply as "prodigal living," may have been particularly appealing to Callot, as a subject that combined his interest in genre scenes with a biblical narrative.