PAINTINGS ONLINE | ANCIENT AND CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY - Page 8

Oil on canvas. The painting looks at the similar work by Paolo Veronese (1528-1588), datable around 1560-70 and now preserved in the Prado Museum, of which our painting takes the composition of the figures, changing the entire background and the clothing of the characters. Veronese's work was so successful that it was replicated by his own workshop, with numerous variations: our work probably derives from one of these copies, replicated at a later time. The episode depicted is narrated in the biblical book of Exodus and tells of the finding of the little Moses, left by his mother in a basket along the banks of the Nile River, to save him from the massacre of the children of Israel perpetrated by the Pharaoh; the Pharaoh's daughter, who went to the river with her entourage, finds him and saves him, adopting him. The figures in the scene are depicted in eighteenth-century clothing, in particular the princess' dress stands out for its richness and sumptuousness; the only exotic element is the presence of a colored servant in the retinue, while the background also refers to a landscape of northern Europe, with thick woodland vegetation. The painting, restored and relined, is presented in an 11th century frame.

The Country Road 1905

Oil on canvas. signed and dated lower right. The Hungarian painter Antal Berkes painted landscapes in the early years of his career, but later devoted himself to glimpses and views of cities, Budapest, Paris, Vienna. This painting still belongs to the first production, proposing the view of a country road, which passes through a forest where some farmhouses are located; on the dirt road there is a cart pulled by horses. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Landscape with Figures

Mixed media on cardboard. Signed lower left. Stamp of the artist's studio on the back. The painter of Apulian origins Giuseppe Casciaro, painter and teacher at the Institute of Fine Arts in Naples where he trained, was essentially a landscape painter and produced in particular views of the surroundings of Naples, Irpinia (Nusco) and Puglia. He preferred the pastel painting technique in which he excelled. Here is a glimpse of a Mediterranean countryside, crossed by a path with wayfarers. It is presented in a period frame.

The Angel of Death 1979

Oil on hardboard. Signed and dated lower left. Further signature, date and title on the back. Angelo Peratici's artistic production is characterized by a desire for expressive freedom that draws on his fervent imagination to represent reality. Starting from this innate impulse to transfigure reality, his art has transformed into a laborious research process, fertile with metaphorical and visionary images, sometimes grotesque, eccentric, which we see realized in particular in the production of the early 80s.

Oil on canvas. The large scene, set in a hilly countryside, with a village and ruins in the background on the left, is completely occupied by the compact group of numerous living figures: the shepherd's family is seated in the center, watching his companion who is holding the swaddled baby in her arms; all around, the animals, from the faithful sheepdog to the animals of the flock, sheep, goats and cows, also resting. The great naturalism of the animal figures stands out, which harks back in pictorial style to the works of the school of Philipp Peter Roos, known as Rosa da Tivoli (1657-1706), the German painter considered one of the best animal painters active in Italy in the 17th century, characterized by the peculiar ability to evoke the fleece and the looks of the animals. The work, restored and relined, is presented in a gilded frame in style.

Oil on canvas. Lombard school of the 17th century. On the first canvas and mounted on the original frame. Set in a prison, the scene shows Saint Ambrose the bishop directing the person on his right, a soldier with a cross around his neck, towards the sky. He can be identified as Saint Victor, a Roman soldier originally from Mauritania, who served in Milan at the time of Maximian and was martyred for his Christian faith. It was the bishop of Milan who recounted the life and martyrdom of the saint in one of his writings and who spread his cult. On the left, another probable martyr of the faith, who witnesses the proclamation of the beatitude of his cellmate; around, numerous other figures of condemned men. The octagonal painting probably belongs to a series dedicated to the cult of the Holy Bishop of Milan. The canvas requires restoration and cleaning, presenting several stains and cuts (a tear in the centre, other smaller ones on the sides).

Oil on canvas. Northern Italian School of the 17th-18th century. The scene features the figure of the Risen Christ at the centre, seated on the clouds, holding the Cross with one hand and with the other pointing downwards, where His gaze is also directed, towards the recipients of the Redemption; He is surrounded by angels and is illuminated by a beam of intense light that projects diagonally from the top left, piercing the clouds, a symbol of the presence of God the Father. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a late 19th century gilded frame.

Untitled

Oil on linoleum, with applications in polystyrene covered with foil. Signed on the back. Accompanied by authentication from the Aldo Mondino Archive. The eclectic Turin artist Aldo Mondino has articulated his artistic research through continuous metamorphoses that have made his production polymorphic: an incessant attempt to find a personal response to the transformations that were taking place in the Seventies, trying to make the history of art coexist with images of mass consumption, personal fantasies, religion, classicism, mysticism, travels to the East, friends and kitsch. His obstinate need to experiment with materials – such as coffee, sweets, sugar, chocolate castings from his beloved Piedmont, marshmallows imported from America, bronze, flowers, strictly blue Bic pens, ceramics and Heraclite carpets – demonstrates his ability to make art, craftsmanship, common life, nature and religion dialogue. All seasoned with the use of irony, to unmask conventions with grace. In the 1980s Aldo Mondino undertook a journey between Morocco and Palestine that left a real mark on him, so much so that it generated the series of works of the Dervishes, dancing subjects painted on linoleum, who practice the ritual dance characteristic of the Turkish tradition by performing fluid and circular movements. The work is presented in a frame.

Oil on canvas. Italian school of the 17th-18th century. Mary and the Baby Jesus, standing on her knees, are depicted already in the glory of heaven, with little angels at their side. Peculiar are the coral necklace and bracelets worn by the Child: in Christian symbolism the color of this material represents the blood that Jesus will have to shed; moreover, since ancient times, coral was also considered a talisman of protection against the evil eye and the forces of evil, and small children were adorned with it to protect them from the devil. The painting is on the first canvas and presented in an ancient contemporary frame.

Copper panels decorated with enamels. This is a 19th-century reproduction of the enamelled Cross of Paschal I (817-824), an important staurotheca in embossed and gilded copper, which contained within it minute fragments of the Cross of Christ, and which became part of the Treasure placed by Leo III (795-816) in the oratory called Sancta Sanctorum in the Lateran. The Cross is made up of five panels, arranged in the shape of a Latin cross, on which seven episodes from the life of Jesus are depicted with lively enamel figures. In the upper panel are the Annunciation and the Visitation of Mary; in the centre panel is the Birth of Jesus; on the left is the Flight into Egypt and on the right is the Adoration of the Magi; and finally in the lower arm is the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple and the Baptism of Jesus. The panels are composed on a wooden base and presented in a glass case frame.

Courtship Scene 1887

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower right, with additional inscription "Baden" (place?). The scene shows a young couple in 18th-century folk clothes, sitting on a bench under a flowering tree, along a country path: the boy is making the girl try playing the recorder, a nice courtship device. There are no biographical information about the artist, who is of German origin by name and place indicated. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil on oak panel. Flemish school of the 17th-18th century. The sacred representation shows the moment of the birth of Jesus in a cave, watched over and adored by Mary and Joseph together with four angels; the figures are well characterized and highlighted by bright colors, while behind them the donkey and the ox blend in with the chromatic uniformity of the cave and the earth. On the right, in the background and in soft colors, fading into the background landscape, the scene of the announcement to the shepherds is depicted. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. The painting is inspired by the pictorial methods of Francesco Foschi (1710 -1780), an artist who specialized in landscapes and who widely spread the taste for winter landscapes. In this painting we have a glimpse of a mountain landscape, with a village located in a valley beneath rocky and snow-capped peaks. Even the houses and meadows are sprinkled with snow, which is absent on the path traveled by numerous figures; the pink atmosphere of the sky evokes the beginning of a new day, already fervent with activity. The painting has been restored and relined. It is presented in a mid-20th century frame.

Oil on canvas. Central European school of the first half of the 20th century. Unidentified signature on the lower left. In a wide valley under sharp mountain peaks, a small lake opens up, on which some houses overlook and boats sail; some common people's figures are busy with daily activities. Pleasant and serene in the green-blue hues of nature. It is presented in a period frame.

Allegory

Oil on canvas. Signed lower left. The large painting features two figures: on the right a man sitting at a table, dressed in a red dressing gown, with a sad and concentrated expression, playing with his hands with some disheveled flowers, coming from the composition on his head; on the left standing the Christ of the Passion, crowned with thorns, with a gray cloak on his shoulders. Behind the seated man, a leaden sky in which, however, a ray of light opens. The painting probably wants to allegorically depict the painful and suffered end of the life of a person, who lives the same Passion as Christ, but who yearns for a new, bright life. The work is presented in a frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Central European school of the first half of the 20th century. Unidentified signature lower left. Sweetness and tenderness shine through these two embraced figures, similar in facial features and expression, composed in their elegant and lively clothes, with the background of a floral wallpaper. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Mixed technique (pencil, pen, brown ink and white chalk) on paper. Italian school of the early 19th century. The scene represents the meeting between a high priest and a leader: if he is followed by his entire army, with grim and armed soldiers of different ranks, the priest is followed by all the people who praise the winner, while two young women on their knees they offer wreaths of flowers. Behind the scene, the mighty walls with the entrance door to a city, towards which the priest points, almost as if handing it over to the leader. The priest's clothing, in particular the presence of the so-called "Decision" breastplate that he wears, refers to an Israelite priest, and therefore the city could be Jerusalem; instead the clothing of the victorious leader, with the helmet surmounted by two horses, refers to Alexander the Great, who actually conquered the city in 332 BC. The drawing is presented in a carved wooden frame from the late 19th century.

Oil painting on canvas. The large scene depicts Mary, already Assumption into heaven and supported on the clouds by little angels, receiving the Crown from the Holy Trinity. This coronation expresses the apotheosis of Mary, who by becoming "Queen of Heaven" becomes the intermediary between the earth, Humanity, and Heaven, the Divinity: what is not given to man to see becomes possible through Mary who in this glorification is more than ever the tenacious thread that binds us to the Almighty, the true "gate of heaven", as it is defined by the Fathers of the Church. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in an early 20th century frame.

Ludovico il Moro's farewell to his wife..

Mixed media (pencil, pen, brown ink and white chalk) on paper. Italian school of the early 19th century. Ludovico Maria Sforza cries at the tomb of his young wife Beatrice d'Este (1475 -1497); around him the friars of Santa Maria delle Grazie and on his left Bramante and Leonardo. On the short side of the marble canopy of the tomb there is the Sforza coat of arms, with two snakes and two eagles. Il Moro was profoundly shaken by the early death in childbirth of his very young wife Beatrice, his companion in his private but also political life, as well as his husband's, a patron of the artistic geniuses of their court, such as Leonardo da Vinci. and Bramante, authors of many pictorial and architectural works of the Visconti-Sforza court. Various versions of this episode are known, especially from the nineteenth century, from that of 1815 by Giovanni Battista Cigola at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, to that of Alessandro Reati of around 1850. The painting is presented in a carved wooden frame from the late 19th century.

Landscape with Mill

Oil on cardboard. Signed lower right. Carlo Vittori, an artist from Cremona, mainly portrayed the landscapes of his Po Valley. Here he proposes a countryside inhabited by a mill, to which the water arrives through an overhead canalization. The painting is presented in chronicle.

Duck Flight

Bronze sculpture. Signature engraved on the base. Gino Masciarelli, a sculptor originally from Abruzzo but who lived in the Milan area, after having also worked at the Experimental Center for Scientific Research “F. Marinotti” in Lombardy, dealing with high-frequency cinematographic shooting, learned to capture the instability of bodies in movement and the dissolution of matter in space in many of his works. In the sculptures "Human groups" and "Flight" - to which the work presented here belongs -, the dynamism of flight can be observed almost as if it were a photographic sequence. The artist himself said: "Only 8 seconds made an impression on 300 meters of film, the aim was to slow down what the human eye cannot see, I wanted to capture the movement and the projection of these seconds lasted a couple of hours".