The Peasants Avenge Themselves, plate seventeen from The Miseries of War
1633
Medium
Etching on paper
Dimensions
Plate: 8.2 × 18.7 cm (3 1/4 × 7 3/8 in.); Sheet: 12 × 22.3 cm (4 3/4 × 8 13/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
23129
Art Historical Context
In the turbulent era of the Thirty Years' (1618–1648), French printmaker Jacques Callot captured the raw brutality of conflict in his seminal series *The Miseries War* (Les Misères et les Malheurs de la Guerre). in 1633, *The Peasants Avenge Themselves is plate seventeen, a poignant etching depicting desperate villagers turning the tables on marauding soldiers who had ravaged their lands. Callot, a master of Baroque printmaking from Lorraine—a region scarred by invading armies—drew from eyewitness horrors to condemn war's dehumanizing toll. This small yet powerful etching (plate 8.2 × 18.7 cm...
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...