Carracci to Stefano della Bella with his fourteen hundred subjects we must dismiss, as, for various reasons, unlikely to appeal to the beginner, though of Stefano della Bella, who was contemporary with Hollar, there are many fine etchings which can be obtained for little expenditure. The illustration from the set of five ovals entitled The Five Deaths, representing scenes during the plague in Florence, is from a print which cost the writer a shilling. (Facing p. 62.)
Of Jacques Callot, the French engraver (1592-1635), there are fourteen hundred known plates, and he offers a field to the young collector. His subjects are varied in character, he etches festivals and tournaments and jousts; he is at home with sieges and military exercises. He faithfully depicts the Miseries of War. His Caprices and his Fantasies are exuberant with picturesque joyousness and airy treatment. His figures of ladies and gallants in costume are as accurate as Hollar, but their environment is Italy. There is a touch of humour in much of his work that is delightfully piquant. In some of his etchings, in addition to the use of the needle scratched through hard varnish, a method of his own invention, he worked on the plate with a graver, as is exhibited in the lozenge-work in the shadows in the illustration of St. Peter, reproduced from a set depicting the Lives of the Apostles. The details in the background, though minute and rapidly done, show various incidents in the life of St. Peter. (Facing p. 64).
The fine set of grotesque figures Balla di Sfessania of twenty-four plates, may be procured for a little less than a sovereign. The Life of the Prodigal Son, of eleven plates, may be bought for 3s. each.
