Description

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Stefano Della Bella (17 May 1610 – 12 July 1664) was an Italian draughtsman and printmaker known for etchings of a great variety of subjects, including military and court scenes, landscapes, and lively genre scenes. He left 1052 prints, and several thousand drawings, but only one known painting. He was born and died in Florence, Italy. Della Bella was born at Florence to a family of artists, and was apprenticed to a goldsmith, but became an engraver working briefly under Orazio Vanni and then Cesare Dandini. He studied etching under Remigio Cantagallina, who had also been the instructor of Jacques Callot. Della Bella’s early prints are very similar to those of Callot. The patronage of the Medicis enabled Della Bella to live and study for six years in Rome, living in the Medici palace, producing vedute and drawings of antiquities as well as crowded images of public occasions in a series of sketchbooks. Many of these images were later turned into prints. He also made trips to Florence to record and assist the court festivities of the Medici. In this period Della Bella’s style developed from Mannerist to Baroque.