140 - JACQUES CALLOT (1592–1635) after ANTONIO TEMPESTA (1555–1630)

JACQUES CALLOT (1592–1635) after ANTONIO TEMPESTA (1555–1630) Martino: A Man Left for Dead After Being Beaten, Miraculously Saved Etching and engraving, plate from the series *Miracles of Our Lady of the Annunciation of Florence*, published in G.A. Lottini, *Scelta d'alcuni miracoli e grazie della Santissima Nunziata di Firenze*, Florence, 1619. Inscribed on the plate, lower right: “Antonius Tempesta inu.”; numbered 77 to the right of the caption. Caption in Italian in the lower margin: “Martino, having reached the brink of death from many wounds, miraculously remains alive and is healed.” Wear and foxing. Dimensions: 17.5 × 13 cm Bibliography: Lieure; one copy is held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Gallica) and another at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Upon arriving in Florence in 1612, the young Jacques Callot worked alongside Antonio Tempesta, whose composition he interprets here. The series illustrates the graces obtained through the intercession of the Virgin of the Santissima Annunziata, a major sanctuary of Florentine devotion. In a dense and frenzied melee, the attackers brandish swords and halberds over the unfortunate Martino, lying on the ground, whom the legend says was miraculously saved. The vigor of the linework and the tightly composed layout already foreshadow the genius engraver that Callot would become.