Artwork story
About Saint Jean Gualbert trampling a monster with two human heads and a serpentine body, from "Frontispiece and four scenes from the life of Saint John Gualbert" (Frontispice et quatre vignettes pour une vie de Saint Jean Gualbert)
The artist and artwork
Stefano della Bella made this small etching in 1640 as one sheet in a five-print series devoted to Saint Jean Gualbert. Born in Florence in 1610 and first trained in a goldsmith's shop, della Bella became one of the seventeenth century's most prolific printmakers and draftsmen. Etching preserved the quick movement of his drawing. Here he packs a haloed saint, a cross-bearing angel, a flying demon, landscape fragments, an inscription, and a writhing composite monster onto a sheet only about seven and a half inches high.
The world around it
The print appeared in a Europe shaped by religious conflict, court spectacle, and expanding print commerce. The Thirty Years' War was still devastating central Europe, while Catholic reform encouraged vivid images of saints and spiritual triumph. Della Bella had recently left Florence for Paris, whose market connected printmakers with publishers, patrons, and buyers. The Met compares his on-the-spot practice to a modern magazine photographer: he recorded military events, royal festivities, street life, and landscapes. A portable etched series could circulate this saint's story much farther than a unique painting or sculpture.
A detail to notice
The strangest feature is the creature under the saint's feet. It is not an ordinary dragon: della Bella gives it a serpentine body, two human heads, animal-like forms, and curling limbs or tails. Jean Gualbert remains calm above that confusion, holding his staff upright while an angel presents a cross at upper left and a demon flees at upper right. The composition rises from the defeated hybrid through the saint's steady body to the airborne struggle, turning a crowded fantasy into a statement of spiritual victory. The grotesque faces and tiny background passages reward close looking and are easy to miss on a small screen.
Look closer: materials, scale, and subjects
The recorded object is print made in Etching and held in the Drawings and Prints department.
Recorded dimensions include Sheet: 7 1/2 x 5 7/16 in. (19 x 13.8 cm); Mount: 8 1/16 x 6 in. (20.5 x 15.3 cm).
Subject terms include Monsters, Angels, Demons, and Saints. Treat them as guideposts, not a complete interpretation.
Collection history and public-domain source
The collection credit line is Bequest of Phyllis Massar, 2011.
The individual artwork page and official image were verified as Public Domain on 2026-08-23.
No Context Gallery independently uses the public-domain image. The source museum has not endorsed, sponsored, or affiliated itself with these products.
Research sources
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