Jacques Callot

This small study is preparatory for Callot's print The Carrying of the Cross (sometimes called The Procession to Calvary) for the series The Great Passion, ca. 1619-24. The Passion series was conceived while the artist lived in Florence but was only engraved and published after he returned to Nancy in 1621. Callot ultimately produced seven plates out of perhaps twelve or thirteen intended for the series. For the Carrying of the Cross, Callot also executed a more finished version of the composition contained in an album owned by the Dukes of Devonshire at Chatsworth. A third sheet depicting the subject in a Swiss private collection is much larger and may be preparatory for a separate print, unless it represents an early idea. Likewise, as the only drawing for the series executed on a smaller scale, the Morgan sheet might represent an initial idea for the subject before the larger scale designs for the series were executed. The verso is rubbed with red chalk and the lines on the recto have been traced with a stylus to transfer the design, indicating it was very much a working drawing.
See also related ething (acc. no. 1958.1:2).