Antique print, etching, Military, Della Bella | Rider on a prancing horse (Ruiter op een steigerend paard, Divers Exercices de Cavalerie [7]), published ca. 1650, 1 p.

Stefano della Bella (1610-1664)

About this Item

Full title: Rider on a prancing horse seen from the side (Ruiter op een steigerend paard van opzij gezien, Divers Exercices de Cavalerie [7]). Rider turned to right making his horse rear up; in profile, with gardens behind.Lettered below: Israel ex.According to the British Museum note, the set of nineteen prints of equestrian activities, dated c.1642 by De Vesme but 1645 by Massar who believes that the series may have been made to honour the occasion of the young King Louis XIV beginning riding, one of the activities in which the 'enfants d'honneur' would have accompanied him. She also bases her dating on two BM drawings (1895,0617.389 and 1895,0617.394) of riders from the Arnolfini Academy, which took part in the Paris entry of the Polish Ambassador in 1645. The second state differs from the first only in that De Vesme 243 does not have "Israel excudit" but "A Paris Chez Israel, rue de l'Arbre sec, au logis de Mons || le Mercier Orfeure de la Reyne pres la croix du tiroir".The state we offer is as of yet undocumented as on the bottom right of the plate a number is inserted: 7.Other plates from the set (12 in total) in our stock are printed on hand laid paper, with a watermark visible only on plate 11. This watermark, IHS with a cross atop the H and with a chain right in the middle. It may identify Italian paper used in the mid-17th century for an impression of Claude Lorrain's print as reported in Making Watermarks Meaningful: Significant Details in Recording and Identifying Watermarksby Kitty Nicholson [https://cool.culturalheritage.org/coolaic/sg/bpg/annual/v01/bp01-18.html].[NL] Ruiter op een stijgerend paard van opzij gezien. Getekende voorstudie wordt bewaard in het British Museum te Londen (inv. nr. 1895-6-17-389). Etching on laid paper, with margins; total: 132 x 97 mm; state III/3?; traces of previous mounting on verso, otherwise in great condition; de Vesme Massar 235; undocumented state. Seller Inventory # PR121181-7

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Title: Antique print, etching, Military, Della ...