Death on the Battlefield, from 'The five deaths' (Les cinq Morts)
Stefano della Bella
ca. 1650–64 · Etching; proof state retouched with graphite and pen and brown ink · Drawings and Prints
Stefano della Bella's first set of oval prints illustrating the triumph of Death included a battlefield scene. This horizontal version, in which the Grim Reaper approaches the skirmish on a skeletal horse, probably dates to the same years. Our sheet is a trial impression; the artist has sketched in two ideas for the position of Death's right arm, reinforcing the one he would use in the finished print, and has added a number of warriors to the background. Evidently, Della Bella did not work from a highly finished drawing but continued to compose as he worked on the etching plate. Jombert and De Vesme date the print to around 1648. There is a strong connection between the print and a sculpture of the figure of Death on horseback also the collection of The Met (17.190.729).
- Artist
- Stefano della Bella
- Date
- ca. 1650–64
- Medium
- Etching; proof state retouched with graphite and pen and brown ink
- Department
- Drawings and Prints
- Credit line
- Harris Brisbane Dick Fund and The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, by exchange, 1959
