Saint Paul, Seated
1622 or later
Medium
etching on laid paper
Dimensions
sheet (trimmed to plate mark): 13.2 × 9.4 cm (5 3/16 × 3 11/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
R.L. Baumfeld Collection
Accession Number
1969.15.913
Art Historical Context
Behold *Saint Paul, Seated*, a delicate etching on laid paper after the masterful hand of Jacques Callot, dating to 1622 or later. Callot, a leading French printmaker of the Baroque era, was renowned for his intricate etchings that captured profound emotion and narrative detail in miniature formats. This small work—measuring just 13.2 × 9.4 cm—likely reproduces one of his religious series, portraying the Apostle Paul in contemplative repose, a figure central to Christian theology as the author of key New Testament epistles and a symbol of conversion and faith. Etching, Callot's signature tech...
About the Artist
after Jacques Callot
**Jacques Callot (c. 1592–1635)**, the master whose designs inspired the works attributed "after Jacques Callot," was a pioneering French Baroque printmaker and draftsman born in Nancy, capital of the independent Duchy of Lorraine (now northeastern France). From a noble family—his father served as master of ceremonies and herald-at-arms to the Duke of Lorraine—young Callot was apprenticed to a gol...