JACQUES CALLOT French, 1592-1635 Set of 12 etchings: Les Fantasies (The Fantasies), circa 1635 Set of 12 engraved works dated 1635 from the series “Les Fantaisies (The Fantasies).” One of the engravings is the title page. Framed. Not examined out of frame. Each one: 2.5 x 3.75 inches $300-400
ARTIST PROFILE: Jacques Callot (c. 1592 – 24 March 1635) was a seminal Baroque printmaker and draftsman from the Duchy of Lorraine who revolutionized the medium of etching. After running away to Italy as a youth, he spent years in Rome and Florence under the patronage of the Medici, where he developed his signature style of "capricci"—vibrant, crowded scenes filled with hundreds of tiny, expressive figures. Callot is credited with two major technical innovations: the invention of the échoppe (a sloped etching needle that allowed for lines of varying thickness similar to an engraver's burin) and the introduction of a hard varnish ground, which prevented the acid from "foul-biting" and allowed for unprecedented detail. His most profound legacy is the series The Great Miseries of War (1633), a harrowing and unblinking account of the atrocities of the Thirty Years' War that served as a direct precursor to Goya's The Disasters of War.
