Two Travelers Passing by an Old Oak Tree
Medium
etching on laid paper
Dimensions
sheet (trimmed within plate mark): 13.6 x 13.7 cm (5 3/8 x 5 3/8 in.) sheet: 18 x 21.2 cm (7 1/16 x 8 3/8 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Bert Freidus
Accession Number
1998.63.3
Art Historical Context
In the mid-17th century, artist Stefano della Bella crafted *Two Travelers Passing by an Old Tree* (1656), a delicate etching on laid paper that a serene moment in a pastoral landscape. Della Bella, a master printmaker of the Baroque era, was renowned for his intricate etchings influenced by contemporaries like Jacques Callot and Rembrandt. Working primarily in Florence and Paris, he excelled in small-scale scenes that blended detailed observation with atmospheric depth, making this nearly square composition (trimmed to about 5⅜ x 5⅜ inches) a quintessential example of his landscape genre. Th...
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...