Jacques Callot  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

(Difference between revisions)
Jump to: navigation, search
Revision as of 23:13, 24 March 2014
Jahsonic (Talk | contribs)
(Other notable works)
← Previous diff
Revision as of 21:24, 23 January 2020
Jahsonic (Talk | contribs)
(Other notable works)
Next diff →
Line 1: Line 1:
 +{| class="toccolours" style="float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; background:#c6dbf7; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="5"
 +| style="text-align: left;" |
 +"The irony which mocks man's miserable actions by placing man and beast in opposition to each other only dwells in a deep spirit, and thus [[Jacques Callot|Callot]]'s [[grotesque]] figures, which are created from man and beast, reveal to the penetrating observer all the secret implications that lie hidden under the veil of the [[comical]]." --Hoffmann on Callot in ''[[Fantasy Pieces in Callot's Manner]]'' (1814) by E. T. A. Hoffmann
 +|}
[[Image:Callot, miseries of war.jpg|thumb|right|200px|''[[The Miseries and Disasters of War]]'' ([[1633]]) by [[Jacques Callot]] [[Image:Callot, miseries of war.jpg|thumb|right|200px|''[[The Miseries and Disasters of War]]'' ([[1633]]) by [[Jacques Callot]]
<br> <br>
-<small>With the 16th century ''[[The Miseries and Disasters of War]]'', French 17th artist [[Jacques Callot]] anticipated [[Goya]]'s ''[[Disasters of War]]'', both of them criticizing the [[horrors of war]] in their art]]+<small>With the 16th century ''[[The Miseries and Disasters of War]]'', French 17th artist [[Jacques Callot]] anticipated [[Goya]]'s ''[[Disasters of War]]'', both of them criticizing the [[horrors of war]] in their art</small>]]
-</small>+
{{Template}} {{Template}}
-'''Jacques Callot''' (c. [[1592]] - [[March 28]], [[1635]]) was a [[baroque]] [[printmaker]], [[drawing|draftsman]] and [[caricaturist]]. He is an important figure in the development of the [[old master print]] and major artist of the [[grotesque]]. He made over 1,400 brilliantly detailed [[etching]]s that chronicled the life of his period, featuring [[soldier]]s, [[clown]]s, [[drunkard]]s, [[gypsies]], [[beggar]]s, as well as [[court life]]. He also etched many religious and military images, and many prints featured extensive landscapes in their background. He deeply inspired [[E. T. A. Hoffmann]], who dedicated ''[[Fantasy Pieces in Callot's Manner]]'' ([[1814]]) to him.+'''Jacques Callot''' (c. [[1592]] - [[March 28]], [[1635]]) was a [[baroque]] [[printmaker]], [[drawing|draftsman]] and [[caricaturist]]. He is an important figure in the development of the [[old master print]] and major artist of the [[grotesque]]. He made over 1,400 brilliantly detailed [[etching]]s that chronicled the life of his period, featuring [[soldier]]s, [[clown]]s, [[drunkard]]s, [[gypsies]], [[beggar]]s, [[dwarf|dwarves]], as well as [[court life]]. He also etched many religious and military images, and many prints featured extensive landscapes in their background. He deeply inspired [[E. T. A. Hoffmann]], who dedicated ''[[Fantasy Pieces in Callot's Manner]]'' ([[1814]]) to him.
== Life and training == == Life and training ==
Line 28: Line 31:
*[[A Peasant Removing his Shoes]] [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_Peasant_Removing_his_Shoes_LACMA_M.86.177.2.jpg] *[[A Peasant Removing his Shoes]] [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_Peasant_Removing_his_Shoes_LACMA_M.86.177.2.jpg]
* a large series depicting [[commedia dell arte]] figures called ''[[Balli di Sfessania]]'', in a simple, [[caricature]] - like style, from his years in Florence. * a large series depicting [[commedia dell arte]] figures called ''[[Balli di Sfessania]]'', in a simple, [[caricature]] - like style, from his years in Florence.
 +*[[Varie Figuri Gobbi]] (‘Various Hunchbacked Figures’), a similar album by Callot
* Series on the Lives of Christ and Mary * Series on the Lives of Christ and Mary
* Series on the story of the Prodigal Son * Series on the story of the Prodigal Son

Revision as of 21:24, 23 January 2020

"The irony which mocks man's miserable actions by placing man and beast in opposition to each other only dwells in a deep spirit, and thus Callot's grotesque figures, which are created from man and beast, reveal to the penetrating observer all the secret implications that lie hidden under the veil of the comical." --Hoffmann on Callot in Fantasy Pieces in Callot's Manner (1814) by E. T. A. Hoffmann

The Miseries and Disasters of War (1633) by Jacques Callot  With the 16th century The Miseries and Disasters of War, French 17th artist Jacques Callot anticipated Goya's Disasters of War, both of them criticizing the horrors of war in their art
Enlarge
The Miseries and Disasters of War (1633) by Jacques Callot
With the 16th century The Miseries and Disasters of War, French 17th artist Jacques Callot anticipated Goya's Disasters of War, both of them criticizing the horrors of war in their art

Related e

Wikipedia
Wiktionary
Shop


Featured:

Jacques Callot (c. 1592 - March 28, 1635) was a baroque printmaker, draftsman and caricaturist. He is an important figure in the development of the old master print and major artist of the grotesque. He made over 1,400 brilliantly detailed etchings that chronicled the life of his period, featuring soldiers, clowns, drunkards, gypsies, beggars, dwarves, as well as court life. He also etched many religious and military images, and many prints featured extensive landscapes in their background. He deeply inspired E. T. A. Hoffmann, who dedicated Fantasy Pieces in Callot's Manner (1814) to him.

Contents

Life and training

Callot was born and died in Nancy, the capital of Lorraine, (an independent state on France's North-Eastern border, now part of France). He came from a prominent family (his father was master of ceremonies at the court of the Duke), and he often describes himself as having noble status in the inscriptions to his prints. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to a goldsmith, but soon after travelled to Rome where he learned engraving from an expatriate Frenchman, Philippe Thomassin. He probably then studied etching with Antonio Tempesta in Florence, where he lived from 1612-1621. Over 2,000 preparatory drawings and studies for prints survive, but no paintings by him are known, and he probably never trained as a painter.

During his period in Florence he became an independent master, and worked often for the Medici court. After the death of Cosimo II de' Medici in 1621, he returned to Nancy where he lived for the rest of his life, visiting Paris and the Netherlands later in the decade. He was commissioned by the courts of Lorriane, France and Spain, and by publishers, mostly in Paris. Although he remained in the backwater of Nancy, his prints were widely distributed through Europe; Rembrandt was a keen collector of them.

Technical innovations: échoppe, new hard ground, stopping-out

His technique was exceptional, and was helped by important technical advances he made. He developed the échoppe, a type of etching-needle with a slanting oval section at the end, which enabled etchers to create a swelling line, as engravers were able to do.

He also seems to have been responsible for an improved, harder, recipe for the etching ground, using lute-makers varnish rather than a wax-based formula. This enabled lines to be more deeply bitten, prolonging the life of the plate in printing, and also greatly reducing the risk of "foul-biting", where acid gets through the ground to the plate where it is not intended to, producing spots or blotches on the image. Previously the risk of foul-biting had always been at the back of an etcher's mind, preventing him from investing too much time on a single plate that risked being ruined in the biting process. Now etchers could do the highly detailed work that was previously the monopoly of engravers, and Callot made full use of the new possibilities.

He also made more extensive and sophisticated use of multiple "stoppings-out" than previous etchers had done. This is the technique of letting the acid bite lightly over the whole plate, then stopping-out those parts of the work which the artist wishes to keep light in tone by covering them with ground before bathing the plate in acid again. He achieved unprecedented subtlety in effects of distance and light and shade by careful control of this process. Most of his prints were relatively small - up to about six inches or 15 cm on their longest dimension.

One of his followers, the Parisian Abraham Bosse spread Callot's innovations all over Europe with the first published manual of etching, which was translated into Italian, Dutch, German and English.

Miseries of War

See The Miseries and Disasters of War

His most famous prints are his two series of prints each on "the Miseries and Misfortunes of War".

Other notable works




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Jacques Callot" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

Personal tools