Smaralo Cornuto and Ratsa di Boio
1622 or later
Medium
etching on laid paper
Dimensions
plate: 6.9 × 9 cm (2 11/16 × 3 9/16 in.) sheet: 7.7 × 10.2 cm (3 1/16 × 4 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.2191
Art Historical Context
Discover the whimsical yet grotesque world of *Smaralo Cornuto and Ratsa di Boio*, an etching after the masterful French printmaker Jacques Callot, created in 1622 or later. Callot, a Baroque innovator who bridged Mannerism and the emerging Rococo, was renowned for his intricate small-scale prints capturing the exuberant chaos of Italian commedia dell'arte. This diminutive plate (just 6.9 × 9 cm) likely draws from his celebrated *Balli di Sfessania* series, featuring fantastical dancers with exaggerated, satirical features—Smaralo Cornuto ("Scaramouche the Cuckold") and Ratsa di Boio evoking t...
About the Artist
after Jacques Callot
**Jacques Callot (c. 1592–1635)**, the master whose designs inspired the works attributed "after Jacques Callot," was a pioneering French Baroque printmaker and draftsman born in Nancy, capital of the independent Duchy of Lorraine (now northeastern France). From a noble family—his father served as master of ceremonies and herald-at-arms to the Duke of Lorraine—young Callot was apprenticed to a gol...