The Miseries and Misfortunes of War

Inscribing Brutality and Justice in Jacques Callot's Miseries and Misfortunes of War

By Christina Aube

Jacques Callot's (French, 1592–1635) The Miseries and Misfortunes of War, published in 1633 by Israël Henriet (French, ca. 1590–1661), depicts the brutal realities of military life during the Thirty Years' War. In the second state of the suite, verses by one of the seventeenth century's most remarkable print collectors, Michel de Marolles, abbé de Villeloin (French, 1600–1681), were added below seventeen etched scenes. The abbot's rhyming sixains (six-line poems) serve as a dire warning to soldiers who would pursue and perpetrate violence: there will be severe consequences for terrorizing innocent people, desecrating religious buildings, and committing atrocities.

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State one of three (i/iii)

Jacques Callot, Scene of Pillage, n.d., etching. Plate 4 from Les Misères et les malheurs de la guerre (The Miseries and Misfortunes of War). The Art Institute of Chicago

State two of three (ii/iii)

Jacques Callot, Pilfering, 1633, etching. Plate 4 from Les Misères et les malheurs de la guerre (The Miseries and Misfortunes of War). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Edwin De T. Bechtel, 1957

Marolles was not only a collector (he amassed two vast collections of prints over his lifetime), but also an author, scholar, and central figure in Parisian printmaking culture. He formed relationships with etchers, engravers, publishers, and dealers, supporting, commissioning, and even contributing to their works. Confirmation of Marolles’ authorship of the verses for Callot's Miseries and Misfortunes of War appears in a 1673 catalogue of the abbot's publications; it explains that he composed the verses "to show the extremes to which things are sometimes reduced through a just punishment of crimes and by the impiety of men."

The suite opens with a scene showing the enrollment of troops, likely mercenaries lured from their homelands by the promise of pay. These well-dressed, orderly recruits bear no resemblance to the brutal figures they will soon become. Marolles' opening inscription stresses the importance of protecting one’s virtue from vice, a responsibility made more difficult in times of war.

Jacques Callot, The Enrollment of the Troops, 1633, etching. Plate 2 from Les Misères et les malheurs de la guerre (The Miseries and Misfortunes of War). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 1922

After fighting a chaotic battle, depicted in the third plate, the soldiers begin to terrorize the countryside, pillaging monasteries, burning villages, attacking travelers, and murdering innocent townspeople, treasonously neglecting their duties. Marolles' verses condemn them in harsh terms. For example, below the Burning of a Monastery, he refers to the perpetrators "enraged, avaricious demons."

Jacques Callot, The Burning of a Monastery, 1633, etching. Plate 6 from Les Misères et les malheurs de la guerre (The Miseries and Misfortunes of War). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Edwin De T. Bechtel, 1957

In the ninth plate of the series, The Capture of the Soldiers, the tables turn, and the criminal soldiers are apprehended. These “enemies of glory,” as Marolles describes them, will soon receive “a punishment commensurate with their recklessness.” His message is unmistakable: these men must answer for their crimes. In the prints that follow, Callot depicts the soldiers suffering the same fates as many of their victims and, in several cases, far worse.

Jacques Callot, The Capture of the Soldiers, 1633, etching. Plate 9 from Les Misères et les malheurs de la guerre (The Miseries and Misfortunes of War). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Edwin De T. Bechtel, 1957

In the final print, Marolles emphasizes that divine justice prevails, and the inscription reinforces the suite’s central message: "From vice, they typically receive shame, contempt, and the ultimate punishment." When mercenaries rob and pillage, they find themselves destitute; when they murder, they themselves are executed; but, if they are virtuous, they will be rewarded. 

Jacques Callot, Distribution of Rewards, 1633, etching. Plate 18 from Les Misères et les malheurs de la guerre (The Miseries and Misfortunes of War). The Art Institute of Chicago, Joseph Brooks Fair Fund

Callot’s images and Marolles' words serve as a powerful condemnation of militarized violence and cruelty. Together, image and text create a compelling, complementary moral warning: if one does not consciously choose to resist evil, and instead succumbs to it, there will be disastrous consequences.

Notes

  1. 1.

    For further reading on this series, also known as the Large Miseries of War, see Resources.

  2. 2.

    For more on Marolles' role, see chapter 3 of my dissertation, "Michel de Marolles and the Rise of Printmaking in the Grand Siècle" (PhD diss., University of Delaware, 2013), 121–33.

  3. 3.

    “Le Catalogue des livres composez par l’Autheur de cette nouvelle Traduction en Vers de toutes les Oeuvres de Virgile.” In Virgil, Toutes les oeuvres de Virgile, traduites en vers françois, 1–26. (Paris: Jacques Langlois, 1673), 5–6. The verses were inspired not only by Callot's imagery but also by a sermon delivered before King Louis XIII by a Dominican Father, Noël Deslandes (ca. 1573–1645), which deeply moved the abbot.

  4. 4.

    Translations mine. This metal that Pluto holds in his veins, which simultaneously makes peace and war, attracts the soldier, without fear of danger, from his birthplace to foreign countries, where, having enlisted to follow military life, his virtue must steel itself against vice. For another translation of the inscriptions, see H. Diane Russell, Jacques Callot Prints and Related Drawings, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1975), 250–61, cats. 195–212.

    Ce metal que Pluton dans ses veines enserre, / Qui faict en mesme temps, et la paix, et la guerre, / Attire le soldat, sans creinte des dangers, / De lieu de sa naissance, aux Pais estrangers / Ou s’estant embarqué pour suivre la Milice / Il faut que sa vertu s’arme contre le vice.

  5. 5.

    Here these enraged, avaricious demons perpetrate sacrilegious and barbarous deeds. They loot and burn everything, destroy the altars, scorn the reverence due to the divine, and drag terrified virgins from churches and sanctuaries, abducting them to be violated.

    Icy par un effort sacrilege et barbare / Ces Demons enragez, et d’une humeur avare / Pillent, et bruslent tout, abattent les Autels; / Se mocquent du respect qu’on doit aux Immortels, / Et tirent des Saincts lieux les Vierges desolees / Quils osent enlever pour estre violées.

  6. 6.

    After the many outrages shamelessly committed by these worthless men, these enemies of glory, they are sought everywhere, with much effort, and the Provost Marshal brings them back to camp to receive what they deserve: a punishment commensurate with their recklessness.

    Apres plusieurs excez indignement commis / Par ces gens de neant de la gloire ennemis, / On les cherche par tout, avec beaucoup de peine, / Et le Prevost du camp au quartier les rameine, / Affin dy recevoir comme ils l’ont merité, / Un chastiment conforme a leur temerité.

  7. 7.

    This example of a just and discerning leader who punishes the wicked and rewards the good should spur soldiers toward honor, since all their happiness depends on virtue. From vice, they typically receive shame, contempt, and the ultimate punishment.

    Cet exemple d’un Chef plein de reconnoissance, / Qui punit les méchans et les bons recompance. / Doit picquer les soldats d’un aiguillon d’honneur, / Puis que de la vertu, depend tout leur bon-heur, / Et qu’ordinairement ils reçoivent du Vice, / La honte, le mespris, et le dernier supplice.