STEFANO DELLA BELLA

Details
STEFANO DELLA BELLA

Les Aigles (DeV. 720-5)

the set of six etchings, circa 1640, on laid paper, without watermark, with thread margins or trimmed on the platemark, DeV. 22 with a horizontal crease, all with pale staining, minor skinned patches in places at the reverse of the sheet edges, framed together
all S. approx. 4 1/2 x 5 13/16in. (113 x 151mm.)
Provenance
The Princes of Liechtenstein
with P. and D. Colnaghi, 1957

Lot Essay

"By the door is a frame with six engravings by Stefano della Bella. They show pairs of eagles, sometimes feeding hungrily, sometimes with backs turned, and sometimes on the edge of greedy confrontation. I kept this in my offices at the Victoria and Albert and the British Museum as a parable of all the things that can so easily go wrong in a museum staff." Learning to Look, p. 314