llot was quite
past the need of princely favors, and could choose his own path. He had
already refused offers from Pope and emperor and doubtless would have
remained in Florence had not Prince Charles of Lorraine determined to
reclaim him for his native place.

In 1621 or 1622 he returned to Nancy, never again to live in Italy. He
went back preeminent among his countrymen. He had done in etching what
had not been done before him and much that has not been done since. He
had created a new genre and a new treatment. He had been faithful to his
first lesson from Duccio and had become eloquent in his use of simple
outline to express joy, fear, calm or sorrow, his work gaining from this
abandonment of shadows a largeness and clearness that separates him from
his German contemporaries and adds dignity to the elegance and grace of
his figures. His skill with the etching needle had become so great that
technical difficulties practically did not exist for him. What he wished
to do he did with obvious ease and always with distinction. His feeling
for synthesis and balance was as striking as his love of the curious,
and as these qualities seldom go together in one mind, the result was an
art extremely unlike that of other artists. It was characteristic of him
that he could not copy himself, and found himself completely at a loss
when he tried to repeat some of his Florentine plates under other skies.

Arrived at Nancy, he found Henry II, the then reigning Duke of Lorraine,
ready to accord him a flattering welcome, and under his favor he worked
with increasing success. Among the plates produced shortly after his
return is one called _Les Supplices_, in which is represented all the
punishments inflicted throughout Europe upon criminals and legal
offenders. In an immense square the revolting scenes are taking place,
and innumerable little figures swarm about the streets and even upon the
roofs of the houses. Yet the impression is neither confused nor painful.
A certain impersonality in the rendering, a serious almost melancholy
austerity of touch robs the spectacle of its ignoble suggestion.
Inspection of this remarkable plate makes it easy to realize Callot's
supreme fitness for the tasks that shortly were to be laid upon him.

He was chosen by the Infanta Elisabeth-Claire-Eugenie of Austria to
commemorate the Siege of Breda, in a series of etchings, and while he
was in Brussels gathering his materials for this tremendous work he c