Stefano della Bella

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Carlo Dolci : Stefano Della Bella (1631). Oil on canvas, 59 × 48 cm; Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti , Florence
Stefano della Bella: Elephant (1641, etching)

Stefano della Bella (born May 18, 1610 in Florence , † July 16, 1664 in Florence) was an Italian draftsman and etcher .

life and work

Stefano della Bella initially trained as a goldsmith in Florence and worked as a copper engraver for Orazio Vanni. He learned the etching technique of copper etching from Remigio Cantagallina, who in turn introduced Jacques Callot to the technique during his stay in Florence between 1612 and 1621. Callot's figurative representations in particular inspired della Bella's first prints. For Galileo Galilei's Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi (1632) he created an etching that is considered the first Italian representation of Copernicus. Erwin Panofskywas of the opinion that della Bella did not strive for portraits, but wanted to portray Copernicus as an archetypal scholar. Special support from Lorenzo di Fernando de 'Medici (1599–1648) enabled Stefano della Bella to study in Rome between 1633 and 1636 . Here he drew attention to himself with an extensive etching depicting the arrival of the Polish ambassador in Rome in 1633.

On the mediation of the Ambassador of Tuscany, Alessandro del Nero, Stefano della Bella went to Paris in 1642 , where he stayed for seven years. On behalf of Cardinal Richelieu , he made series about the landing of the English on the island of Ré and the sieges of La Rochelle and Arras . In 1650 Stefano della Bella returned to Florence, equipped with a comfortable boarding house for the Grand Duke of Tuscany, whose son Cosimo he taught drawing.

Stefano della Bella left an extensive work of over a thousand drawings and etchings, including in particular battles, military and hunting depictions, maps and decorations, seascapes, capriccios and animal series. He recorded the carcass of the female elephant Hansken , who died in Florence in 1655 , in a drawing.

literature

  • Hermann Nasse: Stefano della Bella - a painter-etcher of the late baroque. Heitz & Mündel, Strasbourg 1913.
  • Stefano della Bella, a master of baroque etching. State Art Gallery , Karlsruhe 2005, ISBN 3-925212-62-0 .
  • David Klemm: Stefano della Bella (1610–1664). Drawings from the Kupferstichkabinett at the Hamburger Kunsthalle. Böhlau, Cologne et al. 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-20262-0 .
  • David Klemm: From the beauty of the line. Stefano della Bella as a draftsman. Imhof, Petersberg 2013, ISBN 978-3-86568-962-7 .
  • Jolanta Talbierska: Stefano della Bella (1610–1664). Akwaforty ze zbiorów Gabinetu rycin Biblioteki uniwersyteckiej w Warszawie. = Etchings from the Collection of the Print Room of the Warsaw University Library. Wydawnictwo Neriton, Warsaw 2001, ISBN 83-88973-10-X .
  • Alexandre De Vesme: Stefano della Bella. Catalog raisonné. 2 volumes (Textbd. Tafelbd.). With introduction and additions by Phyllis Dearborn Massar. Collectors Editions et al., New York NY et al. 1971, ISBN 0-87681-042-3 (Unchanged reprint of the chapter on Stefano della Bella in: Alexandre De Vesme: Le peintre-graveur Italy. Hoepli, Milano 1906).

Web links

Commons : Stefano della Bella  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andreas Kühne, Stefan Kirschner: Biographica Copernicana. The Copernicus Biographies from the 16th to 18th Centuries. Texts and translations (= Nicolaus Copernicus: Complete Edition. Vol. 9). With a catalog of Gudula Metze's early Copernicus portraits. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-05-003848-9 , pp. 364–365.
personal data
SURNAME Della Bella, Stefano
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian draftsman and engraver
DATE OF BIRTH May 18, 1610
PLACE OF BIRTH Florence
DATE OF DEATH July 16, 1664
Place of death Florence