17. Jacques Callot (1592-1635)
after Giulio Parigi (1571-1635)
Les Intermèdes, No.1 – Le Géant Tiphée sur le Mont Ischia

(click on image to print)
Callot, Les Intermèdes, No.1

Les Intermèdes, No.1 – Le Géant Tiphée sur le Mont Ischia

Etching, 1617, Lieure 185 iii/iv, 285 x 206 mm. Brilliant impression on laid paper with an unidentified watermark of a figure in a circle, with thread margins and in perfect condition except for a tiny worm hole in the left curtain. The final state of the plate (iv/iv) changes Callot’s signature to delineavit et F. from simply F., indicating that Callot wanted it known that he himself did the drawing from which the print was made, not Parigi, who created the staging and the spectacle. The Intermèdes were three staged intermezzos placed between the acts of a ballet called La Liberazione di Tirenno, e d’Arnea, performed to celebrate the wedding, in 1616, of Ferdinand Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Caterina de’Medici, sister of Cosimo II de’Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany and a patron of arts and entertainment. The entire spectacle was performed in the Medici Theater in the Uffizi in Florence, and Callot’s famous print is the only known view of that theater. Rare in any state, it is particularly desirable in the third, as here, because the composition is complete and the plate shows no signs of wear, which start to occur in the final state.