Combat

The very small scale and closely trimmed oval shape of this decorative engraving invite close looking. The nude wrestlers onstage in the middle of the scene have discarded their clothing, leaving it in a pile in the foreground. Watching from the sidelines are soldiers in classical armor and nobles wearing the fashionable high ruff of the early 17th century. The central action of the wrestlers is charged with homoeroticism; the two naked men grapple in a tight embrace as each struggles for dominance. This engraving originally belonged to a larger sheet with Antoine Jacquard’s signature and two decorative friezes.