17. Stefano Della Bella
(1610-1664)

The Five Deaths (complete set)

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Della Bella, The Five Deaths

The Five Deaths (complete set)

Other Images:

Etchings, each ca. 185 x 150 mm., DeVesme/Massar 87 ii/iii, 88 ii/iii, 89 ii/iii, 90 iii/iv and 91 ii/iii. Superb set, before the address of Vincent, on thin, laid, watermarked paper with good margins outside the rectangular plate marks; minor paper discoloration. Among the greatest “death prints” ever made, Della Bella’s Cinq Morts shows Death carrying off an infant, a child, a woman and an old man in addition to leading a charge on horseback. In some of the backgrounds appear topographically correct images of the Church of the Innocents, the Cemetery of the Innocents, and the Tower of Notre Dame des Bois, all in Paris, and all there to make the images even more terrifying because the setting is familiar. One rarely comes across complete sets of these prints, particularly in such fine quality and condition.