Stefano della Bella's etching, “Plate 6: Eight Vases”, c1646

Stefano della Bella (1610–1664)

“Plate 6: Eight Vases”, c1646 (BM attribution of date), the final plate from the series of six etchings, “Raccolta di vasi diversi” (Collection of different vases), originally published by François Langlois (1588–1647) in the first state and later by Pierre Mariette II (1634–1716) in the second state.

Etching on fine laid paper trimmed close to the plate-mark and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet trimmed unevenly) 8.6 x 20.2 cm.

Lettered and numbered on the plate below the image: (left) “Stef. de la Bella inuent fecit”; (centre) “6”.

State iii (of iii) with the publication details (originally for Langlois and later Mariette) erased.

De Vesme/Massar 1971 1050.III (A de Vesme, revised by Phyllis D Massar 1971, “Stefano della Bella: Catalogue Raisonné”, New York, p. 159 [text], p, 230 [ill.], cat. no. 1050); Jombert (Della Bella) 129 (Charles Antoine Jombert 1772, “Essai d'un catalogue de l'oeuvre d'Etienne de la Belle, peintre et graveur florentin”, Paris, p. 132, cat. no. 129); Orn Cat II 2004. 1915 (Peter Fuhring; transl. from the Dutch by Jennifer Kilian and Katy Kist 2004, “Ornament prints in the Rijksmuseum II: the seventeenth century”, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum Sound and Vision, vol. 1, p. 330, cat. no. 1915).

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“Plate 6; horizontal ornament panel of eight vases, the central vase in the form of an hourglass adorned with two grinning skulls crowned with laurels; the other vases decorated with snakes, bas-reliefs, heads or foliage” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1871-0513-354).

See also the descriptions of this print offered by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harvard Museums of Art and the Rijksmuseum: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/397822: https://hvrd.art/o/57185; http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.77541.

Condition: a strong impression trimmed slightly unevenly along the plate-mark (or slightly within) and backed with a support sheet of archival (millennium quality) washi paper.

I am selling this rare ornamental panel featuring different vases—note the clepsydra (sand clock) at centre with its vanitas design of laurel crowned skulls and bone supports—for AU$232 (currently US$180.51/EUR147.40/GBP127.63 at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world (but not, of course, any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries).

If you are interested in purchasing this sensitively etched panel exemplifying the Baroque period style, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold