Stefano della Bella

The present sheet may be included among a small group of genre scenes, drawn in pen and ink on vellum, dating from the early part of Della Bella’s career in Florence. As Stefano Rinaldi has noted, ‘Iconographically, Stefano’s most notable early compositions do not…belong to the field of landscape but rather to that of genre. In those works, the young artist portrayed the leisure and social life of the Florentine aristocratic beau monde, with a sense of detail and an amused bonhomie almost certainly inspired by Callot.’ Comparable drawings on vellum include an oval Country Dance in the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica in Rome and a Halt of the Hunt in the Louvre in Paris, as well as A Gentleman and his Huntsman in a Landscape in the Uffizi in Florence and a Battle Scene in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle. Somewhat more elaborate in design and conception is a drawing on vellum of the forecourt of the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, dated 1630, which is also at Windsor Castle. 

The first known owner of this drawing was the Swedish physician and surgeon Dr. Einar Perman (1893-1976), who assembled an interesting and varied collection of drawings, with a particular emphasis on landscapes.