Jacques Callot, Anatomical Studies after Lodovico Cigoli and studies of a figure and horses

This page is from an early sketchbook in which Callot responded to a variety of sources during his student years at the Medici court in Florence around 1616. In this instance Callot examines an ‘écorché’ anatomical sculpture by Lodovico Cigoli (c. 1580), the skin flayed to expose the musculature beneath. This figure seems to have inspired the contrapposto stance of an armed soldier, which in turn develops into the lunging poses of many small figures, each with its own specific character. Many of these could be seen as the forebears of Callot’s humorous print series of 1621–25, including ‘Balli di Sfessania’ (Dances of Sfessania) and ‘Gobbi’ (Dwarves).