Plan and view of the city of Arras, depicting a siege with horsemen in foreground to left and right, footsoldiers in center, clouds of smoke to right, cityscape in the background
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 3/16 x 20 1/16 in. (10.6 x 51 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Phyllis Massar, 2011
Accession Number
2012.136.536
Tags
Art Historical Context
In 1641, Italian etcher Stefano della Bella captured the dramatic of Arras in this panoramic etching, a vivid depiction of military turmoil during the Franco-Spanish (part of the broader Thirty Years War). The composition unfolds a wide sheet—measuring just over 4 by 20 inches—showing galloping horsemen flanking the scene left and right, foot soldiers clashing in the center amid clouds of smoke, and the fortified cityscape of Arras in the background. Della Bella, renowned for his work in France under Cardinal Richelieu, drew from eyewitness sketches to convey the chaos and scale of 17th-centur...
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...