The Capriccio, the Grotesque, and the Callotesque

Here, the etymological relationship between the Italian word capriccio , the French word grotesque , and Callot's name aestheticized as Callotesque demonstrates the inventive interpretations that have emerged from engaging with his prints and fixing his syntax into something recognizable. In truth, Callot's very name evokes many different idiomatic concepts of both old and new including the grotesque, the capricci , comedy, commedia dell’arte , satire, the fantastic, the Romantic imagination, poverty, and the monstrous. By examining early dictionaries, descriptions, and visual conventions, we begin to see that after 1617, Callot's engraved figures, born of invention, became exemplars of aesthetic practices in fantasy, invention, and improvisation well into the nineteenth century. Eventually, Callotesque became shorthand for a specific and recognizable idiom in visual print, narrative storytelling, and on stage.