Stefano della Bella (17 May 1610 – 12 July 1664) was an Italian draughtsman and printmaker known for etchings of a great variety of subjects, including military and court scenes, landscapes, and lively genre scenes. He left 1052 prints, and several thousand drawings, but only one known painting. He was born and died in Florence, Italy. Early life in Florence Della Bella was born at Florence to a family of artists, and was apprenticed to a goldsmith, but became an engraver working briefly under Orazio Vanni and then Cesare Dandini. He studied etching under Remigio Cantagallina, who had also been the instructor of Jacques Callot. Della Bella's early prints are very similar to those of Callot. When he was seventeen years of age, he presented an etching depicting a banquet in the Palazzo Pitti to the young Giancarlo de' Medici following which della Bella would receive official commissions by the Medici family. In 1630, at the age of twenty, he produced a manuscript copy from one of the many manuscript versions of Leonardo da Vinci's Trattato della Pittura. He illustrated his copy with about 50 sketches. Della Bella's copy was published in 1792 with "accurate engravings of all of his sketches." By 1632 or 1633 he was the recipient of direct patronage from Lorenzo de Medici (brother to Cosimo II and uncle to Giancarlo de' Medici). At this time Della Bella requested from his patron permission to go to Rome "to perfect himself as an artist." Work in Rome Having arrived in Rome in 1633, della Bella lived and studied there for six years. He resided in the Medici Palace, producing vedute and drawings of antiquities as well as crowded images of public occasions in a series of sketchbooks. Many of these images were later turned into prints. He also recorded and assisted the court festivities of the Medici. In this period della Bella's style developed from Mannerist to Baroque. Della Bella created a series of six prints forming a long, 2.5-meter panel, showing the Polish Ambassador’s Ceremonial Entry into Rome in 1633. He also created a number of prints of views of Rome. While living in Rome, he often returned to Florence working on commissions for his clients there. Paris and the return to Florence In 1639, della Bella went to Paris and lived there until 1650. He adapted his style to French tastes, and was influenced by Rembrandt