379 - Jacques Callot - Complete series of the Life of the Virgin - 14 plates

Jacques Callot - Complete series of the Life of the Virgin - 14 plates Description: Jacques Callot (1592–1635) – La Vie de la Sainte Vierge (Vita et Historia Beatae Mariae Virginis Matris Dei), 1633–1634 – Complete set of 14 etchings. Complete and homogeneous set of the fourteen plates illustrating the Life of the Virgin, including the elaborate title-page and thirteen exceptionally finely etched biblical scenes. Designed and etched by Jacques Callot and published in Paris by Israël Henriet, the series was dedicated to Claude Maugis, Abbot of Saint-Ambroise, celebrated print collector and almoner to Marie de’ Medici and King Louis XIII. Lieure particularly praised this series, considering it one of Callot’s finest religious suites, remarkable for its profound religious sentiment, classical purity, beautiful landscapes and the extraordinary delicacy of its execution. Despite their remarkably small dimensions, the compositions display Callot’s exceptional ability to create spacious and highly detailed narrative scenes on a miniature scale. The title-page in the second state; the subjects in the second state of three, before the later numbers added to the plates by Fagnani in the early eighteenth century. Complete sets in these early, pre-numbered states are particularly desirable, the first states before the lettering being of the utmost rarity and apparently known in only a very few impressions. References: Lieure 1357–1370; Meaume 76–89. Dimensions: 7,00 x 4,50 cm Condition: Excellent good early impressions on laid paper, with margins, the complete set mounted by the corners onto an old collector's sheet. On three plates the old adhesive shows through locally at the corners. The remaining plates are in remarkably fine and fresh condition. The title plate with some faint staining. Overall in very good to excellent condition. Literature: Lieure 1357–1370 (Title II/II, plates II/III) ; Meaume 76–89. Medium: Etchings Date: 1633-1634