''Les Grandes Misères de la guerre'' (; English: ''The Great Miseries of War'' or ''The Miseries and Misfortunes of War'') are a series of 18

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other type ...

s by Lorrainian artist

Jacques Callot Jacques Callot (; – 1635) was a baroque printmaker and drawing, draftsman from the Duchy of Lorraine. He is an important person in the development of the old master print. He made more than 1,400 etchings that chronicled the life of his peri ...

(1592–1635), titled in full ''Les Misères et les Malheurs de la Guerre''. Despite the grand theme of the series, the images are in fact only about 83 mm × 180 mm (3.25 x 7 inches) each, and are called the "large" Miseries to distinguish them from an even smaller earlier set on the same subject.Becker, 155 The series was published in 1633, is Callot's best-known work, and has been called the first "anti-war statement" in European art. The images are panoramic views with many small figures, and they feature gradation from light to dark that was typical of Callot's etchings. In sequence, the images recount the story of soldiers as they enroll in an army, fight in a battle, and rampage through the civilian community, only to then be arrested and executed. The etchings can also be considered as an early prototypical French comic strip, within the

text comics Text comics or a text comic is a form of comics where the stories are told in Cartoon caption, captions below the images and without the use of speech balloons. It is the oldest form of comics and was especially dominant in European comics from t ...

genre, since the illustrations are accompanied by a descriptive text beneath the images.

Description

Pillaging from The Miseries and Misfortunes of War by Jacques Callot

''Les Grandes Misères'' depict the destruction unleashed on civilians during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

; no specific campaign is depicted, but the set inevitably recalls the actions of the army that

Cardinal Richelieu Armand Jean du Plessis, 1st Duke of Richelieu (9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), commonly known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic prelate and statesman who had an outsized influence in civil and religi ...

sent in 1633 to occupy Callot's native

Lorraine Lorraine, also , ; ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; ; ; is a cultural and historical region in Eastern France, now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Its name stems from the medieval kingdom of ...

before annexing it to France. Callot was living in the capital, Nancy, at the time, though the prints were published, like most of his work, in Paris, with the necessary royal licence. The plates still exist, in a museum in Nancy, as do seven drawings of whole compositions, and many tiny studies for figures, with a large group in the

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and holds the large ...

. The series begins with a florid title page, followed by an enrollment parade and a battle scene. Plates 4–8 show bands of the victorious soldiers successively attacking a farm, convent, and coach, and burning a village. In plates 9–14 they are rounded up and subjected to various methods of public torture and execution. Plate 15 shows crippled soldiers in a grand neo-classical hospital, Plate 16 unemployed soldiers dying in the street, and Plate 17 the peasants taking revenge on a group they have captured, killing them with flails. Plate 18 shows an enthroned king distributing rewards to the victorious generals. Each print has a six-line verse caption below the image, written by the famous print-collector Michel de Marolles. All show wide panoramic views, with many tiny figures, as is typical of Callot's work. The technique of using multiple bitings of acid on the plate, with different areas "stopped-out", was perfected by Callot. This method allows gradations in the strength of the line, with distant parts of the scene usually lighter.

Legacy

The central image in what might be the first editorial cartoon is a parody of ''La Pendaison''. In

William Hogarth William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraving, engraver, pictorial social satire, satirist, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from Realism (visual arts), realistic p ...

's early engraving '' Emblematical Print on the South Sea Scheme'', the hanging tree is replaced by a wheel of fortune.

Francisco Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish Romanticism, romantic painter and Printmaking, printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Hi ...

probably owned a set of Callot's etchings, and they are believed to have influenced his similar series, '' Los Desastres de la guerra'' (''The Disasters of War''), almost two centuries later.Becker, 154

Gallery

File:Title page, from the suite The Miseries and Misfortunes of War by Jacques Callot.jpg, Plate 1: Frontispiece File:Enrolling from The Miseries and Misfortunes of War by Jacques Callot.jpg, Plate 2: ''L'enrôlement des troupes'' (''Enrolling the troops'') File:Battle from The Miseries and Misfortunes of War by Jacques Callot.jpg, Plate 3: ''La bataille'' (''The battle'') File:Raid from The Miseries and Misfortunes of War by Jacques Callot.jpg, Plate 4: ''La maraude'' (''The raid'') File:Pillaging from The Miseries and Misfortunes of War by Jacques Callot.jpg, Plate 5: ''Le pillage'' (''Pillaging a house'') File:Looting a Monastery from The Miseries and Misfortunes of War by Jacques Callot.jpg, Plate 6: ''Dévastation d'un monastère'' (''Looting a monastery'') File:Looting a village from The Miseries and Misfortunes of War by Jacques Callot.jpg, Plate 7: ''Pillage et incendie d'un village'' (''Looting and burning a village'') File:Robbery from The Miseries and Misfortunes of War by Jacques Callot.jpg, Plate 8: ''Vol sur les grandes routes'' (''Highway robbery'') File:Arerst of offenders from The Miseries and Misfortunes of War by Jacques Callot.jpg, Plate 9: ''Découverte des malfaiteurs'' (''Arrest of the offenders'') File:Strappado from The Miseries and Misfortunes of War by Jacques Callot.jpg, Plate 10: ''L'estrapade'', or ''

Strappado The strappado, also known as corda, is a form of torture in which the victim's hands are tied behind their back and the victim is suspended by a rope attached to the wrists, typically resulting in dislocated shoulders. Weights may be added to ...

'' File:Hanging from The Miseries and Misfortunes of War by Jacques Callot.jpg, Plate 11: ''La pendaison'' (''The Hanging'') File:Firing squad from The Miseries and Misfortunes of War by Jacques Callot.jpg, Plate 12: ''L'arquebusade'', or ''Firing squad'' File:Stake from The Miseries and Misfortunes of War by Jacques Callot.jpg, Plate 13: ''Le bûcher'', or '' Burning at the stake'' File:Wheel from The Miseries and Misfortunes of War by Jacques Callot.jpg, Plate 14: ''La roue'', or ''

Breaking wheel The breaking wheel, also known as the execution wheel, the Wheel of Catherine or the (Saint) Catherine('s) Wheel, was a torture method used for public execution primarily in Europe from antiquity through the Middle Ages up to the 19th century ...

'' File:Hospital from The Miseries and Misfortunes of War by Jacques Callot.jpg, Plate 15: ''L'hôpital'' (''The hospital'') File:Beggars and dying from The Miseries and Misfortunes of War by Jacques Callot.jpg, Plate 16: ''Les mendiants et les mourants'' (''The beggars and the dying'') File:Peasant revenge from The Miseries and Misfortunes of War by Jacques Callot.jpg, Plate 17: ''La revanche des paysans'' (''The peasants fight back'') File:The awards from The Miseries and Misfortunes of War by Jacques Callot.jpg, Plate 18: ''Distribution des récompenses'' (''Distribution of rewards'')

References

Bibliography

* DP Becker in KL Spangeberg (ed), ''Six Centuries of Master Prints'', Cincinnati Art Museum, 1993. * ''Fatal Consequences: Callot, Goya, and the Horrors of War'', Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, 1990. * Ann Sutherland Harris, ''Seventeenth-century art & architecture'', Laurence King Publishing, 2005.

External links

Zoomable image of ''The Hanging''
at Christies {{DEFAULTSORT:Grandes Miseres 17th-century etchings War art War comics 1633 works Text comics Anti-war works Anti-war comics Comics set in the 17th century Thirty Years' War in popular culture