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Born
in Florence in 1610, Stefano della Bella was exclusively a printmaker;
from 1627, the year of his earliest dated work, he dedicated himself
exclusively to etchings and did not abandon this until his death in
Florence in 1664. His work was closely linked to the patronage of the
Medici, and in particular to the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici, the
brother of Cosimo, who was to encourage and sponsor the entire career of
the artist. It was in fact Lorenzo who was to support della Bella's
sojourn in Rome between 1633 and 1639, during which time he could admire
and study closely the buildings of classical antiquity, which were to be
later the subject of many of his prints. In
1639 he went to Paris with a Medicean delegation to the court of Louis
XIII and was to stay there, always in the service of the Medici, until
1650. Numerous and important series of prints were produced in these years,
comprising of, apart from his preferred landscapes, also portraits,
military scenes, reliefs and studies of great intensity and technical
brilliance. He
was to attain immediate success in France, helped in no small manner by
the favours granted upon him by illustrious figures such as Richelieu and
Mazzarino, as well as fruitful collaborations with important Parisian
publishers such as François Langois (1588-1647) and Israel Henriet
(1590-1661), who edited the publications of his prints. His brilliant and
precise style is often compared with that of Jacques Callot (1592-1635)
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