Jacques Callot's Paper Theatre

This chapter examines Callot's training in Florence, a city itself that operated as a public stage during the reign of Duke Cosimo II de’ Medici. We see examples of Callot's ambitious prints transformed into a dynamic “paper theatre,” staging scenes that required close-viewing audiences to interact with a performance on paper. Paper theatre prints originated during Callot's Florentine period between 1614 and 1621, when he was given a studio in the Uffizi and patronized by Cosimo II; all are made small and compact for intimate viewing, and all feature a fictional setting and integrate both fictional and recognizable theatrical types in a performance setting. Each of these early prints also employed microscopic optical effects and scenes of dramatized viewing and seeing, aesthetics that Callot learned in Florence and used throughout his career, including, of course, in the Balli di Sfessania suite.