print
- Museum number
- 2018,7081.1
- Description
-
Passe-partout border surround for five Jacques Callot etchings (the sixth is missing), top: 'Balli di Sfessania, Scapino - Cap. Zerbino' [Lieure 390]; A turbaned figure traditionally attributed to Callot (see 1861,0713.1025); centre; 'A view of Paris, with water joust taking place on a river at the bottom of a high tower (tour de Nesle)' [Lieure 688]; lower left: 'Capricci di varie figure di Iacopo Callot - The Florence set, two male figures, dressed as Pantalone' [Lieure 249]; lower right: 'Balli di Sfessania, Cap. Cardoni - Maramao (Lieure 400).
Etching and engraving
- Production date
- 1712-1720 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 460 millimetres (trimmed)
-
Width: 547 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This decorative sheet is the product of an ambitious marketing initiative by the publisher Jacques Fagnani. Having acquired, in 1712, the stock of plates by Jacques Callot and Stefano Della Bella which had belonged to Israel Silvestre (along with plates by Silvestre himself), Fagnani was faced with the problem of how to protect his investment. He could not apply for a privilege for the plates, because such privileges were set for a fixed time and these had long since expired. Instead, he decided to apply for a 'copy-privilege', which could be awarded for the reissue of a text which had been significantly amended (by additional commentaries, indices, chapters etc.). There was no precedent for how to apply this concept to an image, which of course could not be substantially amended without losing its appeal. Fagnani decided that his amendment would be to present the plates arranged in decorative frames, like that seen here. The initiative was much criticised by contemporaries.
Lit: A. Griffiths, 'The Print Before Photography', p. 285 (on Fagnani and the series as a whole).
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 2018
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 2018,7081.1