The Temptation of St. Anthony (Callot)
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| - | "[[The Temptation of St. Anthony (Callot)]]"[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Callot,_The_Temptation_of_Saint_Anthony.jpg?uselang=fr] ([[1630]], [[Hermitage Museum]]) by [[Jacques Callot]]. | + | "[[The Temptation of St. Anthony (Callot)]]"[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Callot,_The_Temptation_of_Saint_Anthony.jpg?uselang=fr] ([[1635]], [[Hermitage Museum]]) by [[Jacques Callot]]. |
| :Callot's two versions of The Temptation of St. Antony draw on both the Counter-Reformation movement and on more traditional medieval representations. | :Callot's two versions of The Temptation of St. Antony draw on both the Counter-Reformation movement and on more traditional medieval representations. | ||
| - | Callot's earlier version of The Temptation of St. Antony, dated 1617, is an extremely rare work. While Callot was experimenting with the soft-ground etching technique he accidentally destroyed the background and ruined the plate after only a limited number of impressions had been made. To my knowledge, the Art Museum of Princeton University is the only American collection to own such an impression. Reproduced below is Anton Meitingh's 1637 copy after Callot's print. | + | Callot's earlier version of The Temptation of St. Antony, dated 1617, is an extremely rare work. While Callot was experimenting with the soft-ground etching technique he accidentally destroyed the background and ruined the plate after only a limited number of impressions had been made. To my knowledge, the [[Art Museum of Princeton University]] is the only American collection to own such an impression. Reproduced below is Anton Meitingh's 1637 copy after Callot's print. |
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"The Temptation of St. Anthony (Callot)"[1] (1635, Hermitage Museum) by Jacques Callot.
- Callot's two versions of The Temptation of St. Antony draw on both the Counter-Reformation movement and on more traditional medieval representations.
Callot's earlier version of The Temptation of St. Antony, dated 1617, is an extremely rare work. While Callot was experimenting with the soft-ground etching technique he accidentally destroyed the background and ruined the plate after only a limited number of impressions had been made. To my knowledge, the Art Museum of Princeton University is the only American collection to own such an impression. Reproduced below is Anton Meitingh's 1637 copy after Callot's print.
Caption: Anton Meitingh's 1637 copy after Callot's 1617 Temptation of St. Antony
Meitingh's four-part etching, technically inferior to the original, is a very faithful copy. The theatrical, if not carnavalesque, composition includes medieval renditions of flying demons and strange beasts drinking, vomiting and defecating. Barely visible inside the arch on the left, the saint does not dominate the composition. This role is given to the centralized wagon drawn by four grotesque beasts around which a medieval danse macabre is being performed. Belonging to the artistic tradition of The Memento Mori (literally, `Be mindful of the Dead'), the dance points to the vanity and ephemerality of earthly pleasures. This image, then, is a warning against worldly indulgence similar to the prohibitions put forward by Counter-Reformation writings, especially those of Saint Francis of Sales.
Caption: Callot's 1635 Temptation of St. Antony
Toward the end of his life, Callot created another version of The Temptation of St. Antony. The 1635 composition shares several similar features with the 1617 version, especially the theatrical space framed by rocks on both sides and the devil on the top. The fantastic landscape, however, has been replaced with military and religious architecture and the figure of St. Antony, on the right, has been moved closer to the foreground. The criticism of worldly indulgence which characterized the first version is replaced in the second by a horrifying depiction of hell.
![[1]](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Callot,_The_Temptation_of_Saint_Anthony.jpg?uselang=fr){kind=link}