Callot, Jacques (1592-1635) ,

French engraver and etcher, an important innovator in both the technique and subject matter of printmaking. As a court printmaker for the Medici in Florence from 1612 to 1621, he developed a new etching medium (a varnish of linseed oil and mastic), the hardness of which made possible greater fineness and detail.

This innovation facilitated the work of the great etchers of the 1600s, such as Rembrandt. Callot, in works such as the monumental Fair at Impruneta (1620), was one of the first artists to depict a complete cross section of society.

Returning to his native Lorraine in 1621, he adapted a more realistic, less courtly style. His masterpieces are the two series, each entitled Miseries of War (both 1633), in which he stripped war of its glory and romance, showing with a merciless eye the distress of the common people.