Realism and Role-Play: The Human Figure in French Art from Callot to the Brothers Le Nain

After the heroic nudes of the Renaissance and depictions of the tortured bodies of Christian saints, early seventeenth—century French artists turned their attention to their fellow humans, to nobles and beggars seen on the streets of Paris, to courtesans standing at their windows, to vendors advertising their wares, to peasants standing before their landlords. Fascinated by the intricate politics of the encounter between two human beings, artists such as Jacques Callot, Daniel Rabel, Abraha...