Death on the Battlefield, from 'The five deaths' (Les cinq Morts)

Death on the Battlefield, from 'The five deaths' (Les cinq Morts)

Stefano della Bella

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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 scultpure of the figure of Death on horseback also the collection of The Met (17.190.729).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Death on the Battlefield, from 'The five deaths' (Les cinq Morts)Death on the Battlefield, from 'The five deaths' (Les cinq Morts)Death on the Battlefield, from 'The five deaths' (Les cinq Morts)Death on the Battlefield, from 'The five deaths' (Les cinq Morts)Death on the Battlefield, from 'The five deaths' (Les cinq Morts)

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.