About —
The Musée d’art de Joliette is proud to present The Miseries and Misfortunes of War, one of the most influential series of prints produced in the 17th century. Published in 1633, the 18 etchings are not only a powerful demonstration of Jacques Callot’s remarkable mastery of light and shadow, but also an important document bearing witness to the tragic events of the Thirty Year War (1618-1648). Callot’s series inspired Francisco Goya’s The Disasters of War (1810-1820), first published in 1863. Like Goya, Callot belongs to a line of printmakers who show and condemn the sufferings brought on by war.
Callot’s prints give a very realistic rendering of torture and suffering. Acting both as a historical document and as diary entries, the scenes they depict illustrate the unsettling complexity of the art of war and the destruction it wreaks. Callot’s prints symbolise the barbaric acts committed universally by humankind throughout the ages, even though each print in the series describes a particular atrocity committed in a precise moment in time.
Biography —
Jacques Callot (Nancy, ca. 1592 – id., 1635) is one of the most distinguished and innovative printmakers of his day. An artist of his time, he travelled to Italy, at the very beginning of the 17th century, to study with the great Italian masters. Extremely attentive to details, his prints distinguish themselves by their remarkable photographic quality. Famous in his own day, Callot’s work made an important contribution to the history of art and influenced greatly artists such as Rembrandt, van Dyck and Goya.