Plan and view of the city of Arras, depicting a siege with horsemen in foreground to left and right, footsoldiers in center, clouds of smoke to right, cityscape in the background

Plan and view of the city of Arras, depicting a siege with horsemen in foreground to left and right, footsoldiers in center, clouds of smoke to right, cityscape in the background

Stefano della Bella

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Spanish forces occupied Arras, the capital city of the French province of Artois, for a period during the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48). This print depicts a siege by French troops, who attack at left and right, begun on June 13, 1640. King Louis XIII joined the French army for the siege, the progress of which was delayed when Spanish reinforcements unsuccessfully tried to block the delivery of supplies to the French. The French captured the city from the Spanish on August 9, gaining an important strategic town on the southern frontier of the Spanish Netherlands. This work is the top section of two prints. The bottom section, which was not part of the Massar collection, shows an aerial view around the besieged city and surrounding area. Della Bella treats the scene in an ingenious way: the siege looks as if it is depicted on a sheet of paper with curling corners, creating the sense that the viewer is looking at a representation of a print showing the siege rather than a print itself.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plan and view of the city of Arras, depicting a siege with horsemen in foreground to left and right, footsoldiers in center, clouds of smoke to right, cityscape in the backgroundPlan and view of the city of Arras, depicting a siege with horsemen in foreground to left and right, footsoldiers in center, clouds of smoke to right, cityscape in the backgroundPlan and view of the city of Arras, depicting a siege with horsemen in foreground to left and right, footsoldiers in center, clouds of smoke to right, cityscape in the backgroundPlan and view of the city of Arras, depicting a siege with horsemen in foreground to left and right, footsoldiers in center, clouds of smoke to right, cityscape in the backgroundPlan and view of the city of Arras, depicting a siege with horsemen in foreground to left and right, footsoldiers in center, clouds of smoke to right, cityscape in the background

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.