Frequently combined on the same print, the two basic intaglio processes that are relevant to Jacques Callot's art are engraving and etching. In both processes, the printmaker uses metal tools to incise lines into a metal plate (usually copper) and he also rubs ink into the lines. Then, the plate and a damp sheet of paper are passed through a press with a roller. The pressure of the rollers forces the soft paper into the lines in the plate so that it takes up the ink from them.
In an engraving, V-shaped trenches are cut into the surface of the plate with a tool called a burin which is pushed along the surface. A burin has a V-shaped cross section and a sharpened end, which cuts a shaving from the metal surface as it is pushed along. In this slow and laborious process, the artist works directly on the copper plate.
An etching, on the other hand, involves the use of chemicals to create lines on the metal plate. The plate is first covered with a ground whose principal ingredient is wax. Then the etcher draws his/her design on the blackened ground with an etching needle so that the drawn lines appear as bright metal. Finally, the prepared plate is put into an acid bath. The acid eats or `bites' away the exposed metal of the lines, but does not go through the wax ground so the design is transfered to the metal. The depth of the lines depends upon on the length of their exposure to the acid.
The etching technique is cheaper and faster than engraving, yet before Callot, engraving was the most widely used media. Callot made two innovations in the etching process. According to Diane Russell, the first innovation: 'was his discovery of a hard ground made of mastic and linseed oil which, in contrast to those used previously, firmly adhered to the plates rather than chipping off; such chipping permitted acid to act undesirably on the plate where it was not intended to do so (the result is known as 'foul biting')' [Russell (1975):xx].
The most important advantage of this innovation was that, by providing a hard-ground surface, the artist was able to use his/her metal tools freely.
Callot's second technical innovation appears to be more a technical accomplishment than an invention. Callot is credited with having been the first etcher to use the existing technique of repeated `bitings' or exposures to the acid bath in order to create lighting and spacial effects. Callot's technical accomplishments became widely known and influential through the publication of Abraham Bosse's treatise on prints in 1645.
Paper, although generally not dicussed in this context, is an essential component of prints. When the Chinese invented paper, circa AD. 100, they shredded plants or rag fibers and sieved the mash to deposit a vegetable felt, which is paper. They strained their felt on some sort of a weave which is translucent when held to the light. Later, to speed the process, they strained the fibers on a sieve of parallel strips of bamboo, for which the Europeans substituted wires. As the fibers drain, some lodge on top of the bamboo strips or wires and some across the slits. This creates in the paper a pattern of close parallel lines crossed where the laid-line bamboo or wires are stitched. In the West, wires bent in a design, lettering, or a date are often stitched on the sieve to form a watermark. Watermarks identify paper mills and are of great importance for art historians and collectors.
Jacques Callot's working method was quite different from that of other important seventeenth-century etchers. He produced many preparatory drawings and detailed studies for his prints and brought the image to its final form before cutting the plate. Thus, the differences in states in Callot's work are minor and consist of additions such as signatures, publishers' names, etc., rather than changes in composition. The UAG owns the first and the second state of the Massacre of the Innocents, produced in 1618 and 1622 respectively; two very rare prints:
Caption: Massacre of the Innocents, 1618
Caption: Massacre of the Innocents, 1622
Other contemporary artists, like Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), made important changes between the different impressions of a design, thereby creating several states for the same design.
The prints of Jacques Callot exist in large editions. Although he printed in quantity, the quality never suffered. In the best impressions of his works, printed either by him or under his supervision, all the lines are clean and there is a mildly gray coloration to the paper which was imparted by a film of ink on the plate. While Callot printed most of his work himself, he became associated with the Parisian publisher Israël Henriet after his return to Nancy. In this association, Callot produced the copper plates and Henriet printed the images. In St. John the Baptist, for instance, the inscription `fe' (abbreviated for `fecit') means made by Callot and `ex' (abbreviated for `excudit') that the print was published by Henriet. The Grain Weighers is the first work among Callot's early prints to carry the designation `In,' the abbreviation for `invenit' that indicates that the artist was the inventor of the composition. This print is very rare.
Caption: St. John the Baptist Caption: The Grain Weighers
When Henriet died in 1661, his nephew, Israël Silvestre, who was a printmaker in his own right, inherited his uncle's shop and reprinted some of Callot's plates, now preserved at the Musée Historique Lorrain at Nancy. Thus, hundreds of impressions of Callot's work were made without his supervision. Israël Silvestre's printmaking shop was very successful since at his death he had about 15,000 copper plates.
I conclude this section with two prints to illustrate Callot's technique. In The Catafalque of the Emperor Matthias, Callot used both the etching and the engraving techniques. Today, the copper plate is located in the Musée Historique Lorrain in Nancy and five preparatory drawings for the print have been identified. The print shows the funeral of the Emperor Matthias (d. March 20, 1619), ruler of the Holy Roman Empire and first cousin of Maria Magdelena, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, which was held in a chapel of San Lorenzo in Florence.
In his Judith with the Head of Holofernes, Callot also experimented with the point of a needle, a technique called gravé au pointillé in French, which he used a few times and then abandoned, dissatisified. This print is one of the few Old Testament subjects in Callot's oeuvre.
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