Mariame, Ester, Clytemnestre, and Sabine, from 'The game of queens' (Le jeu des Reines renommées)
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 3 7/16 x 8 11/16 in. (8.8 x 22 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Phyllis Massar, 2011
Accession Number
2012.136.455.4
Tags
About this artwork
Stefano della Bella's 'Mariame, Ester, Clytemnestre, and Sabine, from The game of queens' (1644) belongs to an educational playing card series created for young Louis XIV's instruction. Commissioned by Cardinal Mazarin, written by Jean Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin with etchings by Della Bella, a Florentine artist working in Paris 1640-1649. The Game of Queens consists of fifty-two cards plus title card, featuring queens from antiquity to Anne of Austria, including classical mythology, Old Testament...
About the Artist
Stefano della Bella · 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...