in
Literature
and Art.
303
engravings of the fefiivities; it was his I-irft commencement in a clafs of
detigns by which he afterwards attained great celebrity. In the year
following, his engagement with Parigi ended, and he became his own
mailer. He now came out unfettered in his own originality. The firlt
fruits were feen in a new kind of deligns, to which he gave the name of
" Caprices," a feries of which appeared about the year 1617, under the
title of " Caprici di varie Figure." Callot re-engraved them at Nancy in
later years, and in the new title they were Hated to have been originally
engraved in I616. In a {hort preface, he {peaks of thefe as the iirlt of
his works on which he fet any value. They now {trike us as (ingular
A Criluple.
examples of the fanciful creations of a molt grotefque imagination, but
they no doubt preferve many traits of the fefiivals, ceremonies, and
manners of that land of mafquerade, which mull; have been then familiar
to the Florentines; and thefe engravings would, doubtlefs, be received by
them with abfolute delight. One is copied in our cut No. I63 ; it
reprefents a cripple fupporting himfelf on a fhort crutch, with his right arm
in a fling. Our cut No. I64. is another example from the fame fet, and
reprefents a matked clown, with his left hand on the hilt of his dagger,
or perhaps of a wooden fword. From this time, although he was very
induftrious and produced much, Callot engraved only his own defigns.
VVhile