Engravings by Jacques Callot (1592/93–1635) will become the basis for yet another In artibus Foundation’s exhibition. Seventy etchings, previously owned by Albertina museum in Vienna, and a drawing by the celebrated French master were provided to the Fund by Moscow collectors.
Exceptional accuracy of Callot’s graphical talent, his utmost artistic integrity, and the credibility of visual representation as a result, has allowed his work to become not only a mirror of time through which we largely perceive his epoch — a turning point in European history, — but also a source, a breeding ground for many generations of artists, writers, and musicians. Despite the core of the exhibition being composed of works by a renowned master who occupies one of the most honorable niches in art history, the nature of the exhibition is not academic. Its subtitle Capriccio refers to the most unbound genre of art of Modern Age which has identical representation as in music, as in painting and drawing.
Jacques Callot is the head character of the exhibition, but is not the only to be displayed. In addition to the prints of the famous series of Balli di Sfessania (1621), Les Grandes Misères de la Guerre (1633), La Grande Passion (1618), and La Petite Passion (1624), the visual representation will be topped up by the work of other artists — both those whose plastic finds could have inspired the French artist, and those whose approach to art had been influenced by the ‘manner of Callot’. The exhibition will feature drawings by Joos de Momper, Rembrandt, G. B. Piranesi, J. L. David, Theodore Gericault, and Honore Daumier.
