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| Stefano della Bella A Skirmish ca. 1645 etching Metropolitan Museum of Art |
Stefano della Bella (1610-1664) worked in Paris throughout the 1640s while remaining under the sponsorship of his Medici patrons in Florence. The Franco-Spanish War dragged on during this decade. Louis XIV was a minor, still governed by his extremely unpopular mother and her ministers. The series of civil wars subsequently known as the Fronde also broke out in France during the 1640s. There was universal agreement that worse times had never been seen. Nicolas Poussin, the most famous French artist of his day, remained settled in Rome and only worked in France with great reluctance and under strong pressure. This is the background for della Bella's etched scenes of everyday French life, which he placed both on the ubiquitous battlefields of his time and in some remarkably peaceful backwaters.
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| Stefano della Bella Death on the battlefield ca. 1646 etching Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Stefano della Bella Horses fighting ca. 1642-45 etching Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Stefano della Bella Two horsemen dueling with pistols ca. 1642-45 etching Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Stefano della Bella Two men skinning a horse ca. 1642-45 etching Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Stefano della Bella Two soldiers conversing near a wolf feeding on a dead horse ca. 1640 etching Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Stefano della Bella Figure of Fame ca. 1647-51 etching British Museum |
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| Stefano della Bella Palais Cardinal with figure of Fame ca. 1649-51 etching Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Stefano della Bella An artist at work, with young gentlemen standing by 1649 etching Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Stefano della Bella Seated gentry conversing 1642 etching Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Stefano della Bella Ladies on a riverbank watching bathers in the water ca. 1649 etching Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Stefano della Bella Peasant woman carrying bundles and baskets 1649 etching Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Stefano della Bella Rest on the flight into Egypt, with tame bird 1641 etching Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Stefano della Bella Harvest musician, with child dancing 1649 etching Metropolitan Museum of Art |