The Hangman’s Tree, plate 11 from the series The Miseries of War

One of the premier print makers of the seventeenth century, Callot is also credited for being the first artist to make a series of work that is definitively and unapologetically antiwar. The Miseries of War was created in response to the destruction and pain inflicted on innocent people during the Thirty Years War. The Hangman’s Tree, arguably the most famous image in the series, depicts a mass public execution of at least fifteen people all hung on the same tree. The sheer number of people combined with the lack of defining features of each of the limp bodies highlights the immensity and all consuming violence that typified the long conflict. (“Imprint/ In Print,” curated by Nancy E. Green with assistance from Christian Waibel ’17 and presented at the Johnson Museum August 8 – December 20, 2015)