La Foire de l'Impruneta (Deuxième Planche)

Aged 21, Jacques Callot visited the annual Fiera di San Luca at Impruneta, a village near Florence, on 18 October 1619. He was so impressed with what he saw that he filled an entire sketchbook on the occasion, which is today at the Uffizi in Florence (see for example inv. no. 613P). Based on his drawings of the crowded fairground and many other, more detailed observations, he completed a very large plate, depicting the whole panorama. When he left Florence a year later, following the death of Cosimo II de Medici, he took the plate with him to his native city of Nancy, where it is still today at the Musée Lorrain. The print was in such demand that Callot produced a second plate of the same subject shortly after his return, around 1622, of which a very fine, luminous impression is being offered here. Just as the first version, Callot dedicated it to his former patron in Florence, Cosimo II de' Medici.
It is a joy to observe the multitude of activities of the visitors, traders and performers at the fair and the many amusing details, so lovingly described by Callot. La Foire de l'Impruneta is also an important example of the 'stopping-out' technique, which allowed the printmaker to vary the depth and strength of the etched lines. In this print, one of the masterpieces of his oeuvre, Callot had perfected the method, with the background printing gradually more lightly to create an atmospheric sense of depth and perspective.