Stefano della Bella (Florence 1610-1664)

A characteristic example of Stefano's academic studies, with its energetic short lines of hatching used to suggest form and indicate the shadowed parts of the body. It is very close in style to two other studies of male nudes in the Louvre (F. Viatte, Inventaire Général des Dessins Italiens: II: Dessins de Stefano della Bella 1610-1664, Paris, 1974, nos. 330-1).