Detail from Les Danseurs à la flûte et au tambourin (Dancers with flute and tambourine) by an unknown artist, after an etching by Jacques Callot, 17th century? Dayton C. Miller Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress.
after an etching by Jacques Callot, painter, draughtsman, etcher and engraver, 1592-1635
Two dwarfs, one of whom is barefoot with his shoes tied to his belt, dance and play instruments. The French title, from a catalogue raisonné by Lieure on Callot's engraved works, identifies the wind instrument in this print as a flute, but the instrument is not clearly identifiable. It is a probably a duct flute, possibly a flageolet or recorder. The man on the right plays a tambourine. Both have swords attached to their belts. The sky and earth are indicated simply by horizontal or wavy lines.
The Miller etching is a copy by an unknown artist of an etching by Jacques Callot (1592-1635), whose works were copied often, even in his own lifetime. The original Callot etching was part of a series of 50 etchings entitled Capricci which Callot executed in Florence about 1617 for the young Lorenzo de Medici (1599-1648). Callot re-etched a second series of Capricci in Nancy (Lorraine) soon after his return to France in 1621, perhaps completing this second set about 1622.
Examples of Callot's original etchings of the Dancers with Flute and Tambourine from both Capricci series are in the Print Room of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.[1] When the Miller print is compared to the original Callot prints in the Capricci series, the skillful mastery of Callot is quickly evident. The freshness of Callot's touch and his fineness of detail are far superior to the work of the copyist of the Miller print. Nevertheless, the Miller etching is quite beautifully drawn. It has great charm and it has a certain beauty because of its very simplicity. The most notable differences between the original Callot etchings and the Miller copy are: 1) all of the etchings in both Capricci series by Callot are extremely small, the plate impressions measuring on average about 2 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches (5.7 x 8.5 cm.); 2) the figures in the Miller print are mirror images of the original figures in the ca. 1617 and ca. 1622 etchings by Callot; and, 3) the figures in the Miller copy are farther apart from each other than in Callot's original compositions.
Though very small itself, the Miller etching is still about three-fourths of an inch taller and about an inch wider than the original Callot etchings. Though the Miller figures are mirror images of those in the original Callot etching, the figures themselves in both the Miller copy and in the Callot etchings are nearly identical in size, measuring about 2 x 1 3/8 inches (5.1 x 3.5 cm.). However, the composition of the Callot etching is much more compressed, with only about three-fourths of an inch between the two figures. The Miller copy has much more space above, below and between the figures. Because the figures are reversed in the Miller print, the engraver almost certainly copied the image from Callot's original etching and, when drawn on the plate and printed, the image was inverted.
When reading descriptions of the ca. 1617 and ca. 1622 Callot etchings of the Dancers with Flute and Tambourine, and when looking at reproductions of them in books, they appear almost identical yet, when looking at the original Callots, there are significant differences between the first and second versions. There is much more detail in the earlier Callot print, particularly in the facial expressions of the dancers. There is also more clarity in the details of the costumes of the dancers in the ca. 1617 etching, than in the ca. 1622 version. For example, the ruffled collar of the tambourine player is more clearly defined in the earlier print than in the later version; and, the lower part of the sleeve of the flutist has slashes in it in the ca. 1617 print, which are no longer present in the ca. 1622 version. Also, the foreground of the ca. 1617 etching seems more clearly defined as the shadows of the dancers, whereas in the ca. 1622 version, the foreground has been much simplified.
The Miller etching seems to be a copy of the more simplified Nancy version of ca. 1622, since it has many of the features characteristic of Callot's second version: the ruffled collar of the tambourine player is less defined; there are no slashes in the lower part of the sleeve of the flutist; and, there are only two slashes in the shoulder of the jacket of the tambourine player, while there were three slashes in the ca. 1617 version. There are a few other differences overall between the Florentine (ca. 1617) and Nancy (ca. 1622) versions of the Capricci: 1) the Florentine series was never numbered, and there is a thin, framing line at the top and sides of each print; 2) there are no framing lines around the prints in the second series from Nancy, and there are two states of the Nancy series, one without numbers, and one numbered 1 to 48, the title and dedication pages not being numbered.
In the second, numbered, state of the Nancy etchings, Dancers with Flute and Tambourine is numbered "32." The Miller etching carries a number "7" at the lower left corner, so it does not correspond to the number "32" in the second state of the Nancy series. The Miller number "7" must simply be a plate number in a book or series of prints by this unknown copyist after Callot.
Just for interest, note in the Miller etching that there are some imperfections in the printing of the image. There are small "losses" in the black lines in the figure of the flutist on the left - along the front of the flutist's leg, the bottom edge of his coat, and in the toe of one of his shoes tied to his waist. The black ink is less saturated in these areas because too much ink was wiped from the plate when it was prepared for printing.[2]
The entry on the original print by Callot in Nicholas S. Lander, Recorder Iconography, identifies the wind instrument in this image as a "duct-flute (flageolet or recorder)."[3]
About the Artist
Jacques Callot, painter, draughtsman, etcher and engraver, 1592-1635
Jacques Callot, a painter, draughtsman, etcher and engraver, was born in Nancy, Lorraine, in 1592, and died in the same city in 1635. His earliest training in art was with a medalist in Nancy. He left for Rome by 1611 to continue his studies with the engraver Philippe Thomassin and, by 1614, he was living in Florence, and working for the Medici. For the next seven years, he documented in drawings and prints many of the court activities - pageants, festivals, masques, and carnivals. His figures are lively and varied and Callot could create a remarkable sense of distance even in his smallest works. One of Callot's masterpieces is his Fair at Impruneta of 1620, dedicated to Cosimo de Medici. A large etching, measuring about 17 x 27 inches, it contains over 1300 figures and animals. After Cosimo's death in 1621, Callot returned to Nancy where he soon received commissions from Henry II, Duke of Lorraine. Among the important works Callot created after his return to France were plates celebrating victories such as at Breda and La Rochelle, which incorporated maps and entire armies and fleets. Later, in Paris, in 1633, he published a series of 18 prints on the Miseries and Misfortunes of War which recorded the atrocities of the Thirty Years War. In the last years of his life, Callot created over 600 works on religious themes, the most important of which was Temptation of St. Antony, of 1635, the year of his death. Considered one of the finest printmakers of the 17th century, Callot produced over 1400 prints and more than 2000 drawings.[4]
Notes
- See Rosenwald Collection 1949.5.131 [ca. 1617] and 1949.5.181 [ca. 1622]; R. L. Baumfeld Collection 1969.15.479 [ca. 1622]. There is also a woodcut by Edouard Eckman, after Callot, in the R. L. Baumfeld Collection 1969.15.227 [ca. 1621]. [back to article]
- For more information on Callot's Capricci series, see the following sources: Edouard Meaume, Recherches sur la vie et les ouvrages de Jacques Callot. 2 vols. Paris: V. J. Renouard, 1860. The ca. 1617 and ca. 1622 versions of Dancers with Flute and Tambourine are nos. 834 and 835. A general description of the entire series, nos. 768-867, is found on pages 364-367, following which are descriptions of each of the 50 plates in both series. National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC, call number: NE650.C3. See also Jules Lieure, Jacques Callot: Catalogue de l'oeuvre gravé. 5 vols. Paris: Editions de la Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1924-1929. Reprinted in 8 volumes, New York: Collectors Editions Limited, 1969. LC call numbers: NE650.C3L5 and NE650.C3L52. In the 1969 edition, see vol. 3, p. 97, nos. 246 and 460 for the descriptions of the ca. 1617 and ca. 1622 etchings; see vol. 4, same numbers, to compare the images of the Florentine (ca. 1617) and Nancy (ca.1622) etchings. [back to article]
- See Nicholas S. Lander, Recorder Iconography,
under Callot "Les Caprices." [back to article] - For more complete biographical information and bibliography on Callot, see an article by H. Diane Russell, "Jacques Callot," in Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online (subscription only). [back to article]