AFTER JACQUES CALLOT, 17TH CENTURY

The present ivory plaques depict ten out of the series of eighteen engravings from Jacques Callot's Les Miseres et les Malheurs de la Guerre, published in 1633. Callot had already conceived of the idea of a set of images depicting the horrors of war while working on commissions for Queen Isabella of Spain (to illustrate the Siege of Breda) and for Louis XIII of France. The result was the depiction of the world of 17th century soldiers, objectively documenting their life and illustrating the effect that war - with its images of rape, pillaging and violence - had upon them. The captions were written by Abbé Michel de Marolles (1600-1681) and are in accord with Callot's documentary style.
The series was to be of inspiration to many artists, most notably to Francisco Goya, who in his The Disasters of War (published 1863) depicts many similar themes, though with an impassioned protest far removed from Callot's impartial and unpolitical work.