Plan and view of the city of Arras, depicting a siege with horsemen in foreground to left and right, footsoldiers in center, clouds of smoke to right, cityscape in the background

Spanish forces occupied Arras, the capital city of the French province of Artois, for a period during the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48). This print depicts a siege by French troops, who attack at left and right, begun on June 13, 1640. King Louis XIII joined the French army for the siege, the progress of which was delayed when Spanish reinforcements unsuccessfully tried to block the delivery of supplies to the French. The French captured the city from the Spanish on August 9, gaining an important strategic town on the southern frontier of the Spanish Netherlands.

This work is the top section of two prints. The bottom section, which was not part of the Massar collection, shows an aerial view around the besieged city and surrounding area. Della Bella treats the scene in an ingenious way: the siege looks as if it is depicted on a sheet of paper with curling corners, creating the sense that the viewer is looking at a representation of a print showing the siege rather than a print itself.