(Copyright National Gallery of Victoria, Australia)
Jacques Callot (1592-1635)
Etching (9 states)
Size: 20.3 x 26.7 cm or 23 x 27.3 (image)
The image depicts Saint Mansuy or Saint Mansuetus of Toul miraculously reviving a boy hit by a tennis ball. It would be wonderful if this was evidence that tennis existed in the mid-4c AD when Mansuy performed this miracle but in this 17c work Saint Mansuy is set in a contemporary context noting his popularity in Lorraine (where Callot was from as well) as the area’s most famous Saint.