BELLA, STEFANO DE LA, an eminent engraver, was born at Florence A. D. 1610. His father was a goldsmith, and he himself began to work at his father's business. But whilst he was learning to draw, in order to perfect himself in that profession, there fell by accident into his hands some of the prints of Callot, with which he was so delighted, that he prevailed upon his father to permit him to apply himself to engraving; and he became the disciple of Canta Gallina, who had also been the instructor of Callot. De la Bella at first imitated the manner of Callot. But his abilities soon began to manifest themselves; and as he acquired by degrees a facility in the handling of the burin, he quitted the style in which he only shone as an imitator, and adopted one entirely his own, which in freedom and spirit is said even to have surpassed that of his fellow-disciple. In 1642 he went to Paris, where Cardinal Richelieu engaged him to go to Arras, and make drawings of the siege and taking of that town by the royal army. He also went to Holland, where, it is reported, he saw some of the prints of Rembrandt Gerretsz, and attempted to imitate them; but finding he did not succeed to his expectation, he dropped that design, and continued to pursue his own manner, as more suitable to his genius. After residing a considerable time at Paris, his family affairs obliged him to return to Florence, where he obtained a pension from the grand duke, and was appointed to instruct the prince Cosmo his son in the art of design. But being subject to violent pains in the head, his life was rendered miserable, and at last terminated, by this cruel disorder, which carried him off in the year 1664, at the age of fifty-four.