Callot figures; a dwarf man playing the drum at left, a beefeater in center, a flute player to right, from "Six grotesques" (Six pièces de figures grotesques)
Agostino Mitelli II Italian
After François Collignon French
After Stefano della Bella Italian
Not on view
Agostino Mitelli, the son of the well-known printmaker Giuseppe Maria Mitelli, had a brief career as a printmaker in Bologna. This print is part of set of six etchings after Stefano della Bella that represent a type of caricature that was very popular in the seventeenth century. Here, several dwarf-like figures play musical instruments while striking exaggerated poses. Captions running along the bottom of the prints add to the humor of the works by identifying the figures and their relationships. In the uppermost print, the scene of a man playing a guitar to a woman holding a hearing horn is described as “beauties unheard.” In the lower print, the man standing confidently in the middle is described as the “great bandy-legged corporal.” Such characters also appeared in Italian theater and would have been recognized by those who bought these prints.
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