Born in Lorraine, Callot (1592–1635) began his artistic studies with a goldsmith and engraver in Nancy. By 1608 he was in Rome studying drawing under Antonio Tempesta (q.v.) and then when his finances ran out, he began working as an engraver for the printmaker Philippe Thomassin as well as Tempesta, his master. In 1611 Tempesta sent Callot to Florence to deliver some plates and etchings to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany who persuaded her husband to sponsor Callot. He remained in Florence until 1621, when he returned to Nancy. There he produced many religious prints and recorded court pageants in numerous prints and drawings.
In 1630 he began preparations for the print of Saint Sebastian,(1) an early Christian martyr who was the patron saint of Nancy(2) He made three preparatory compositional drawings for this etching as well as numerous figure sketches in red chalk.(3) The earliest and least detailed sketch is in the collection of Jacques Dupont, Paris. The Crocker drawing is the second study for the print while the third and latest study is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.(4)
All three compositional drawings are in the reverse sense of the etching. In the first study Callot blocked out the principal groups and organized the general layout in which the foreground is established with spectators at the left and archers at the right. In the second—the Crocker drawing—Callot centered the figure of Saint Sebastian still seen at some distance and the crowd has become more numerous in the left foreground, including a few horsemen and an especially dense concentration of figures, creating a diagonal from the right corner to the middle distance. The architecture has become more complex with an arch at the left, while antique ruins including the Colosseum have been added to the middle distance. Standards add further diagonal accents to the left and right foreground. Overall, the second compositional sketch is much more complex than the first. While the third and last compositional drawing is very close to the Crocker sheet, Callot tightens up the structure of the composition, strengthening the diagonals leading to the small central figure of the saint. The subject gains dramatic impact as the composition extends deeper into the background with the view of the city in the distance. It has often been remarked that Callot conceived this composition theatrically. The setting is wide and deep like a stage, the immediate foreground taken up with what at first appear to be dominant figures of the archers and lounging spectators seen in strong silhouette. These are turned towards the miniscule figure of Sebastian in the middle distance and serve to emphasize his martyrdom and the significance of the event.
Cara Denison, in William Breazeale, with Cara Denison, Stacey Sell, and Freyda Spira, A Pioneering Collection: Master Drawings from the Crocker Art Museum, exh. cat. Sacramento and tour, 2010
Notes:
(1) Édouard Meaume, Recherches sur la vie et les ouvrages de Jacques Callot, cat. raisonné, Paris, 1860, no. 137, Jules Lieure, Jacques Callot, catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre gravé, Paris, 1924–27, no. 670. The etching measures 16.1 x 32.7 cm., considerably smaller than the preparatory drawings.
(2) This impression British Museum, inv. no. 1861-7-13-258.
(3) Album Jullienne, (Hermitage, St. Petersburg). Ternois 1962 as in Literature above, nos. 1176-1191.
(4) inv. no. D. 20.1887
Inscriptions: verso, black chalk, upper left: Callot Jacques/Le Martyre de S Sebastian; black chalk, lower margin at left: 1222/DZ
Marks: none
Provenance: Edwin Bryant Crocker, before 1871; gift of his widow Margaret to the Museum, 1885
Literature: William Breazeale, with Cara Denison, Stacey Sell, and Freyda Spira, A Pioneering Collection: Master Drawings from the Crocker Art Museum, exh. cat. Sacramento and tour, 2010, no. 30; William Breazeale, "Old Masters in Old California: the Origins of the Drawings Collection at the Crocker Art Museum," in Master Drawings, vol. XLVI, no. 2, Summer 2008, p. 214; C. Roxanne Robbin et al., Drawing in Italy from 1550–1650, exh. brochure Sacramento, 2004, no. 9 and p. 40; Edda Hevers, "Die Waffen des Auges niederlegen, Lacans Theorie visueller Symbolisierung veranschaulicht am Pfeilmartyrium des H. Sebastian von Jacques Callot," in Video ergo sum, Repräsentation nach Innen und Außen zwischen Kunst- und Neurowissenschaften, Hamburg, 1999, p. 224, fig. 6; Paulette Chone et al., Jacques Callot 1592–1635, exh. cat. Nancy, 1992, no. 635; Hilliard Goldfarb, From Fontainebleau to the Louvre, French Drawings from the Seventeenth Century, exh. cat. Cleveland, 1989, no. 14; Seymour Howard et al., Saints and Sinners in Master Drawings, exh. cat. Sacramento, 1983, no. 15; French Drawings from the E. B. Crocker Collection, exh. cat. Long Beach, 1979, no. 5; Master Drawings from the E. B. Crocker Art Gallery at the Church Fine Arts Gallery, University of Nevada, Reno, exh. cat. Reno, 1978, no. 3; Ebria Feinblatt, Old Master Drawings from American Collections, exh. cat. Los Angeles, 1976, p. 128 no. 141; H. Diane Russell, Jacques Callot, Prints and Related Drawings, exh. cat. Washington, 1975, p. 160, no. 150; Master Drawings from Sacramento, exh. cat. Sacramento and tour, 1971, no. 44; Jacques Callot, exh. cat. Providence, 1970, no. 75; Pierre Rosenberg, "Twenty French Drawings in Sacramento," in Master Drawings, vol. VIII, no. 1, Spring 1970, p. 31; Daniel Ternois, Jacques Callot, catalogue complet de l'oeuvre gravé, Paris, 1962, no. 1174; Drawings of the Masters, exh. brochure, Sacramento, 1959, no. 3; Jacques Callot 1592-1635, exh. cat. Los Angeles, 1957, no. 354; Numa S. Trivas, "Callot's Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian," in Art Quarterly, vol. IV, Summer 1941, pp. 205–09
