Jousting Tournament (Frontispiece du Combat à la barriére)

Callot’s father, Jean, had been in charge of public festivities at the ducal court of Lorraine, and in 1627 Jacques himself became deeply involved in an extraordinary pageant and tournament at the ducal palace celebrating the arrival of the Duchesse de Chevreuse. Infamous for her many affairs and intrigues, including plots against King Louis XIII, the flamboyant Duchesse found political refuge—and a dazzling gala welcome—at the court of Lorraine. Callot designed all the floats and costumes for the pageant, and all the prints for the commemorative festival book. For the floats and costumes, he relied on the Florentine examples he had seen centered around mythological themes.

Callot’s series depicts the successive entry of costumed guests—he sometimes splits the composition into two levels to include the full complement of attendants—and finally, the tournament itself, in which combatants rode at each other across a wooden barrier. The outcome of this highly staged "combat" could not have been in doubt: Duke Charles IV, who came disguised as the Sun, guaranteed his own victory, as a symbolic affirmation of his authority.