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영어

This essay examines Jacques Callot’s Les Grandes Misères et Malheurs de la Guerre (1633) as a moral meditation on war as catastrophe. It also uses Callot’s Miseries to reflect on the nature of catastrophe as such, particularly as “An event producing a subversion of the order or system of things.” As such, catastrophe refers less to nature or the natural gone awry, than it does to the abnegation or suspension of moral aspects of human nature. More than a reflection on war as catastrophe, and catastrophe as fundamentally moral, Callot’s Miseries are a timeless meditation on aspects of the human condition; or on human beings in what amounts to state of nature―as evidenced in times of disaster. Such reflection, again, does not by itself imply that all war―even when catastrophic― is unnecessary, let alone necessarily unjust. But it does suggest that artistic engagement with war understood as catastrophic, may yield insights into human nature that are as important to human self-understanding as those represented in artistic subject matter that is more quotidian.