Stefano Della Bella

This action-packed scene was one performance in a multiday theatrical extravaganza held to celebrate the marriage of Cosimo III de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Marguerite Luisa d’Orléans. The theater stretched out from the rear of the ducal residence in Florence, the Pitti Palace, and into the Boboli Gardens, where its structure can still be seen today. On the floor of the theater, riders perform an equestrian ballet. Such ballets (which come down to us today as “dressage”)

consisted of armored and plumed riders who performed mock combat while also forming patterns on the ground, all set to music. In the center, a procession with floats, riders, footmen, and musicians is divided into groups called quadrilles. At the far end, a float billowing with fake smoke and bearing the mountain of Atlas stands before a large, ephemeral architectural structure. The audience surrounds the field on two sides upon massive bleachers.

Stefano Della Bella made this print as part of a series depicting a theatrical extravaganza held to celebrate the marriage of Cosimo III de’ Medici and Marguerite Luisa

d’Orléans at the Palazzo Pitti and Boboli Gardens in Florence. Della Bella portrays an equestrian ballet or carrousel, a procession with floats, horsemen, footmen, and musicians divided into groups called quadrilles. The audience surrounds the field on two sides and a float billowing withsmoke and bearing the mountain of Atlas is at the far end. Della Bella, who worked for the ducal court in Florence after Callot, used many of Callot’s conventions, including a framing repoussoir (foreground framing device), but his execution is somewhat looser, resulting in even more movement and atmosphere.