- New
Rebus on Fortune
| Reference: | S48710.1 |
| Author | Stefano Della BELLA |
| Year: | 1639 ca. |
| Measures: | 210 x 280 mm |
€1,800.00
- New
| Reference: | S48710.1 |
| Author | Stefano Della BELLA |
| Year: | 1639 ca. |
| Measures: | 210 x 280 mm |
€1,800.00
Description
Cartouche containing rebus in Italian on the subject of fortune; oval cartouche containing a drapery on which the rebus is written, with pictorial figures and symbols (including several figures of Fortune, an eagle, ships and wind) in place of some words.
Etching, circa 1639, signed within image with monogram "SDB".
Enigmatic and suggestive subject matter perhaps to be used, applied to cardboard and attached to a wooden or ivory handle, to decorate a fan.
The rebus is a game that, by alternating figures and letters, invites one to decipher a solving sentence. By its nature, the rebus is related to the idea that words are also-or at least can be represented through-things (hence the name rebus, ablative of res). Before modern vignettes, the game was declined in linear form: figures and letters follow one another on the line of writing and must be spelled out in succession to arrive at the solving sentence. This happens in Leonardo da Vinci's figurative figures, also close to the genre of the feat; in Giovan Battista Palatino's figurative sonnet (Libro nuovo d'imparare a scrivere, 1540); in the seventeenth-century fans of Della Bella and Giuseppe Maria Mitelli.
Favorite themes include songs, love stories, occasional sonnets and, as in the case of Della Bella and Mitelli, also proverbs and idioms represented in rebus form, with alternating letters and figures.
Solution of the rebus: Fortuna e dormi/Ogni uno balla a cui Fortuna suona/Chi ha la Fortuna ogni tantin di chiave basti/Ognuno sa navicar quando fa sol e vento/Miglio è un'oncia di Fortuna che due libbre di sapere/More Fortuna che senno [Fortuna and sleep/Every one dances to whom Fortuna plays/Who has Fortuna every bit of key suffices/Everyone knows how to sail when it's sunny and windy/Mile is an ounce of Fortuna than two pounds of knowledge/More Fortuna than sense].
There is a sheet of preparatory drawings in the Louvre.
Stefano della Bella was one of the most interesting and original engravers in 17th-century Florence and can be considered the only brilliant continuator of Jacques Callot's work. His artistic education began in Florence in the workshop of the goldsmiths Gasparo Mola and Orazio Vanni, and the precision of sign, typical of the goldsmith's art, will remain characteristic of his style. He then studied under Giovanni Battista Vanni and perhaps also under Cantagallina and Cesare Dandini, but soon turned to engraving. His real master can be considered Jacques Callot, the French engraver who stayed in Florence for a long time and left a strong imprint on the city's artistic scene.
The most important years of his career were the ones he spent in Paris, from 1639 to 1650, salaried by Lorenzo de' Medici: he worked together with Israel Silvestre, with the publishers Langlois, Ciartres and Pierre Mariette, for French printers and for commissions of great prestige, such as those of 1641 for Cardinal Richelieu, who entrusted him with illustrations of his warlike exploits.
Around 1647, during a trip to Holland, where he executed etchings with views of the port of Amsterdam, he met Rembrandt, and from that date we note a profound echo of the Dutchman's art in Della Bella's graphic work.
A very good impression, printed with tone on laid paper, with margins, perfect condition.
Bibliografia
Alexandre de Vesme, Phyllis D. Massar Stefano della Bella. Catalogue Raisonné. New York, 1971, cat. no. 111.689.
Stefano Della BELLA (Firenze 1610 - 1664)
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Stefano della Bella was one of the most interesting and ingenious artists of XVII century in Florence and can be considered as the sole real follower of Callot. He was educated in Florence at first, in the studio of Gasparo Mola and Orazio Vanni; this experience gave him a firm and careful hand when using the graver. He then went to Giovan Battista Vanni’s and, very likely, he also studied with Cantagallina and Cesare Dandini but, as Baldinucci said, he was still very young when he decided to leave painting and devoute entirely himself to engraving. His real master, then, can be considered Jacques Callot, the French engraver who lived for long time in Florence spreading his influence all around the city.
Lorenzo dè Medici became soon Stefano’s patron and invited the young artist in Rome between 1633 and 1636; in the Eternal City, the artist realized many copies from the antiquities and from Polidoro’s works. In 1633 he realized his first noteworthy work: Entrata a Roma dell’ambasciatore di Polonia Giorgio Ossolinsky.
In 1639 Stefano went to Paris where he lived, until 1650, out of a pension Lorenzo dè Medici had granted to him.
Around 1647, when travelling along the Netherlands, he met Rembrandt; from that moment the influence of the Dutch artist can be found in the entire Della Bella’s production.
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Stefano Della BELLA (Firenze 1610 - 1664)
|
Stefano della Bella was one of the most interesting and ingenious artists of XVII century in Florence and can be considered as the sole real follower of Callot. He was educated in Florence at first, in the studio of Gasparo Mola and Orazio Vanni; this experience gave him a firm and careful hand when using the graver. He then went to Giovan Battista Vanni’s and, very likely, he also studied with Cantagallina and Cesare Dandini but, as Baldinucci said, he was still very young when he decided to leave painting and devoute entirely himself to engraving. His real master, then, can be considered Jacques Callot, the French engraver who lived for long time in Florence spreading his influence all around the city.
Lorenzo dè Medici became soon Stefano’s patron and invited the young artist in Rome between 1633 and 1636; in the Eternal City, the artist realized many copies from the antiquities and from Polidoro’s works. In 1633 he realized his first noteworthy work: Entrata a Roma dell’ambasciatore di Polonia Giorgio Ossolinsky.
In 1639 Stefano went to Paris where he lived, until 1650, out of a pension Lorenzo dè Medici had granted to him.
Around 1647, when travelling along the Netherlands, he met Rembrandt; from that moment the influence of the Dutch artist can be found in the entire Della Bella’s production.
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