Cleveland Museum of Art

Drinker Seen From Behind

Jacques Callot

Date

c. 1621–25

Medium

etching

Culture

France, 17th century

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This image was published by Callot in 1621 as part of a series of 21 prints depicting gobbi (people with curved backs). The series was titled Varie figure gobbi di Jacopo Callot fatto in Firenza l'anno 1616 (Various hunchbacks by Jacopo Callot, made in Florence in 1616). The figures in the series are reminiscent of character tropes that were popular in the theatrical genre known as the commedia dell’arte (comedy of the profession). As the name suggests, the comedy of this genre was predicated on the assumption that the viewer occupied a different social class than the characters depicted. This figure's distorted physique and drunken dance would have suggested to contemporary audiences that he is inherently flawed in both body and mind. This figure is raising his cup in one hand and holding a bottle with the other. Both the bulbous shape of the bottle and its basketlike encasement suggest that it is made of glass, which was newly introduced for the storage of wine in the 1600s.

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