Standing Violinist, from Diverse Figures from the Countryside

Genre figure studies that recorded the novel activities and costumes of country folk were popular during the seventeenth century. For his Diverse Figures from the Countryside series, done while he was in Paris, della Bella created eight detailed, small-scale vignettes in a landscape setting, often with a subtle narrative. During his sojourn in France, which lasted from 1639 until 1650, della Bella was supported in part by the sale of his many print series, such as Diverse Figures, which filled in the artistic gap left in Paris by Jacques Callot's death in 1635.