Duel with Sword and Dagger, From Les Caprices

1611–1621 · Workplace

Florence

1614–1621

At the court of Cosimo II de’ Medici

Under Parigi’s direction Callot works at the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo II de’ Medici in the Uffizi, designing festivals and theatrical performances — later these give him themes for his series of grotesque prints; during his Florentine years he becomes an independent master and often works for the Medici.

1617

Switches to hard ground and repeated biting

From 1617 Callot uses, instead of the soft ground customary until then, the acid-resistant hard ground of Florentine joiners and furniture-makers; it allows the plate to be bitten repeatedly, with parts of the spatial planes successively covered by varnish, and gives broad tonal gradations; he is also credited with the échoppe, an etching needle with a slanted end that produces a swelling line.