Frontispiece, from Des Miracles et Graces de Notre-Dame de Bon-Secours-Les-Nancy (Miracles and Graces of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours, Nancy)
1630
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 7/8 x 3 1/16 in. (12.4 x 7.7 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, by exchange, 1940
Accession Number
40.52.82
Art Historical Context
This delicate etching by Jacques Callot, a master printmaker of the Baroque era, serves as the frontispiece for *Des Miracles et Graces de Notre-Dame de Bon-Secours-Les-Nancy*, a 1630 devotional book celebrating the miracles attributed to a revered statue of the Virgin Mary at the Bon-Secours church in Nancy, France. Created during the tumultuous Thirty Years' War, when Callot himself lived in his native Lorraine, the image captures the era's fervent Catholic piety amid regional strife, inviting pilgrims to reflect on divine intervention. Callot's etching technique shines in this intimate 4 7...
About the Artist
Jacques Callot · 1592–1635
Jacques Callot (1592–1635) was a French printmaker and draftsman from the Duchy of Lorraine, widely regarded as one of the first great artists to practice the graphic arts exclusively. His more than 1,400 etchings chronicled the breadth of 17th-century life, from Medici court festivities to the brutal realities of warfare. Callot revolutionized etching through technical innovations including the é...