The courtyard of an Italian farm

The courtyard of an Italian farm, with building on the left and man working on a cart in the middle; in the foreground, on the left a man seated at the bottom of a tree.

Etching, 1621, without signature.

From the “Capricci di varie figure di Iacopo Callot” - The Nancy set. First state before number.

Capricci di varie figure di Iacopo Callot” is a series of fifty plates (including a title and a dedication), engraved by Callot during his stay in Florence c.1617. Because it was engraved on relatively soft copper plates, details were rapidly lost and the set gave few good impressions.

Callot engraved a second 'Capricci' series when he came back to Nancy (1621). Good impressions of this set are less rare than for the first one as it was printed for longer. Meaume and Lieure, following Mariette say that the second set is of lesser quality than the one executed in Florence. However, the two series are almost identical (with the exception of two plates of the second set which are copies in reverse of plates from the first one), and many sets today actually mix plates from both series. The most obvious difference is that the plates from the Nancy series were numbered in the second state. The smaller differences are described in detail by Lieure & Meaume.

In the first half of the 17th century, Jacques Callot renewed the language of graphic art by developing and enhancing the potential of etching. Born in Nancy in 1592, he completed his artistic training in Italy, staying in Rome between 1608 and 1611, were he learned to engrave with a burin and established his first contacts with the engraver community. His patron, between 1612 and 1620, was Cosimo II de' Medici, at whose court he earned great renown both as an engraver of refined skill and as a judge of taste and intelligence. The years of his Florentine sojourn were filled with works that cemented his fame. After Cosimo II's death in 1621, Callot returned to Nancy, where he received new illustrious patrons, including the Duke of Lorraine and the Infanta of Spain. His fame was finally cemented with the commission, received through Richelieu, to engrave The Siege of La Rochelle and the Île de Ré for the King of France, Louis XIII. In 1630, he began collaborating with the publisher Israel Henriet in Paris, who edited many of his works. For his inexhaustible inventiveness in subject matter, his technical expertise, and his attention to detail and the minuscule, Callot's work stands as a decisive benchmark for the entire development of European engraving.

A very good impression on contemporary laid paper, with thin margins, good conditions.

Bibliografia

Lieure 1927, Jacques Callot (433.I); Meaume 1860, Recherches sur la vie et les ouvrages de Jacques Callot (779.I); 'Jacques Callot' (Nancy 1992), nn.1996-226.