Course Readings: Web Gallery

Selections from the Miseries of War, Etchings (1633) by Jacques Callot

Born in Nancy, Jacques Callot (1592-1635) became one of the leading engravers of his time. Son of a well-connected bourgeois who had gained a noble title, Callot obtained his artistic training in Italy before settling for good in the Duchy of Lorraine. Like his father, Callot was an astute businessman who made a great deal of money from the sale of his etchings. Although he represented a wide variety of subjects, Callot could not avoid illustrations associated with war. Massive conflicts with religious complexions raged close by. Northward, the Dutch persisted in their revolt against the Spanish Habsburg crown. To the East, just across the Rhine, the Thirty Years War pursued its destructive course. Indeed, during the 1620s, Lorraine found itself sucked into the dynastic and religious quarrels that plagued Europe during this period. By the time of Callot's death from an ulcer in 1635, Louis XIII of France had added the Duchy of Lorraine to his domains.

In 1633, Callot produced a series of eighteen etchings entitled the Miseries of War. In this series, he protested the chaos, misery, and suffering associated with the conflicts raging during this period. In particular, he deplored the endless cycle of violence perpetuated by unruly troops preying upon civilians. A selection of etchings from the Miseries of War follows below. Each etching has a poem that serves as a caption. Since they relate a narrative, please look at them in order.

Recruiting Soldiers: "The metal inside Pluto's veins/Which at the same time causes peace and war/Attracts the soldier without fear of danger/From his birthplace to foreign lands/Where having chosen to follow the army/He must arm himself with virtue against vice."

The Battle: "However rough the attacks of Mars/And the blows that his arm strikes everywhere/That does not undermine the invincible courage/Of those whose valor can fight the storm/And who, to win the name of warrior/Water their laurels with their enemy's blood."

Plundering a Farmhouse: "Here are the great exploits of these inhuman hearts/They ravage all over, nothing evades their hands/To get gold, one invents torture/Another inspires his accomplices with a thousand misdeeds/And all in the same spirit commit wickedness/Theft, kidnapping, murder, and rape."

Destroying a Convent: "Here, in a sacrilegious and barbarous action/These crazed and greedy demons/Pillage and burn everything, ruin the altars/Mock the respect owed to the Immortals/And take from the holy places the forsaken virgins/Whom they carry off to rape."

Laying a Village Waste: "Those whom Mars feeds with wicked deeds/Treat in such a manner the poor country people/They make them prisoner and burn their villages/And even ravage the animals/Neither fear of the law nor a sense of duty/Nor tears and cries can stop them."

The Hanging: "In the end, these infamous and lost thieves/Like unhappy fruit on this pendulous tree/Show well that crime (horrible and black spawn)/Is itself the instrument of shame and vengeance/And that it is the destiny of vicious men/To experience sooner or later the justice of heaven."

The Stake: "These enemies of heaven who sin a thousand times/Against the sacred decrees and the divine laws/Find glory in wickedly pillaging and destroying/The temples of the true God with an idolatrous hand/But as punishment for burning them [the temples of God]/They are themselves finally consigned to the flames."

Breaking on the Wheel: "The ever-watching eye of the divine Astrée [Justice]/Banishes entirely the mourning from the country/When holding the sword and scales in her hands/She judges and punishes the inhuman thief/Who awaits passersby, hurts them, and plays with them/[And] then becomes himself the plaything of a wheel."

Soldiers' Hospital: "See how the world is and how many dangers/Pursue without end the children of the god Mars/The crippled ones drag themselves on the ground/More fortunate ones obtain promotion in war/Others on the gallows die by a fatal blow/And others go from the camp to the hospital."

The Peasants Strike Back: "After the soldiers have committed many depredations/The peasants, whom they have treated as enemies, finally/Wait for them and by a surprise/Put them to death and strip them down to their shirts/And avenge themselves on these unfortunate ones/For the loss of their goods due solely to them."

Distribution of Honors: "This example of a leader full of understanding/Who punishes the wicked and remunerates the good/Ought to prick the soldiers with the goad of honor/Since on their virtue depends all their happiness/And since they ordinarily receive from vice/Shame, infamy, and the worst punishment."