Taglia Cantoni and Fracasso
1622 or later
Medium
etching on laid paper
Dimensions
plate: 7.3 × 9.4 cm (2 7/8 × 3 11/16 in.) sheet: 7.7 × 10.4 cm (3 1/16 × 4 1/8 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.2185
Art Historical Context
Discover the whimsical world of commedia dell'arte in *Taglia Cantoni and Fracasso*, an etching after the masterful Jacques Callot, created in 1622 or later. Thisutive print (plate: 7.3 × 9.4 cm) captures two lively characters—Taglia Cantoni a sharp-tongued zanni, and the boastful Capitano Fracasso—fromot's renowned *Balli di Sfessania*. These fantastical dancers, adorned in exaggerated costumes, embody the grotesque humor and athleticism of early 17th-century Italian theatrical spectacles performed at the Medici court in Florence, where Callot worked. Callot, a pioneering Baroque printmaker ...
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...