The Hanging (La Pendaison), from The Miseries and the Misfortunes of War (Les Grandes Miseres de la Guerre)

Date1633

MediumEtching

Credit LineArt History Department Fund

Dimensions3 5/8 x 7 11/16 in. (9.2 x 19.6 cm)

Object number2001.004.011

Label TextItaly was always a source of inspiration for northern artists. In the early seventeenth century Jacques Callot of the Lorraine went there to perfect his knowledge of etching. He worked in Florence for many years for the Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany recording the theatrical pageants of the court and made several technical contributions to the craft of etching. Recalled to the north by the Duke of Lorraine at the time of the Thirty Years War, Callot created one of his greatest works, The Large Miseries and Misfortunes of War, a series that presents the life of a soldier in wartime, a tale of crimes and punishments.
Exhibition HistoryInvention and Revival: Northern European Prints, Michael C. Carlos Museum, February 12 - May 15, 2005
Published ReferencesC.G. Boerner, Leipzig, Kupferstiche radierungen und holzschnitte des XV.-XVIII. jahrhunderts aus der sammlung des Fursten zu Oettingen-Wallerstein in Maihingen und Beitrage aus anderem Besitz (28. Mai 1935), 5, lot 42.

ProvenanceEx coll. Prince of Oettinger-Wallerstein, Maihingen, Bavaria, Germany. With C.G. Boerner, Leipzig, Germany, 1935. Purchased for MCCM by Emory University Art History Department from David Tunick, Inc. Prints and Drawings, New York, New York.

InscribedFinally these infamous and abandoned thieves, hanging from this tree like wretched fruit, show that crime (horrible and black species) is itself the instrument of shame and vengeance, and that it is the fate of corrupt men to experience the justice of Heaven sooner or later.

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