A skirmish, two horsemen battling with swords to the right, men carrying a flag running away towards the right, a dead man on the ground and a horseman seen from behind to the left, from 'Varie figure'
Medium
Etching; first state of four
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 1/8 x 6 1/8 in. (10.4 x 15.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Phyllis Massar, 2011
Accession Number
2012.136.426.4
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the bustling chaos of a battlefield skirmish, Stefano della Bella captures raw energy in this etching from his series *Varie Figure* (Various Figures), circa 164. Two swordsmen on horseback clash fiercely to the right, while panicked men flee with a flag, a fallen soldier lies lifeless on the ground, and a rider charges from behind on the left. Della Bella, a masterful Italian etcher who worked in Paris during the Baroque era, excelled at dynamic equestrian scenes and military vignettes, drawing from the turbulent Thirty Years' War era that gripped Europe. This first-state impression—befor...
About the Artist
Stefano della Bella|François Langlois · 1610–1664
Stefano della Bella (1610-1664) was one of the most prolific and versatile printmakers of the Italian Baroque period, leaving behind 1,052 prints and several thousand drawings that captured the vivid essence of 17th-century European life. Born in Florence on May 18, 1610, to a family of artists, he trained initially as a goldsmith before studying painting under Cesare Dandini and etching under Rem...