PAINTINGS ONLINE | ANCIENT AND CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY

High relief carved in meerschaum (petrified limestone, also known as calcite). The scene of the Marriage of Mary and Joseph, also called the Marriage of the Virgin, has been widely depicted, traditionally against the backdrop of a temple, with the priest presiding and, in this case, the Holy Spirit and angels who, from above, testify to the presence and divine approval of the event. The work is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. On the back is a description with an earlier date, though not plausible. The material analysis also suggests a later work. It depicts an elderly lady, with a stern gaze, composed and haughty in her pose, dressed in refined yet understated clothing. The painting shows signs of restoration and relining.

Oil on canvas. The woman portrayed is standing, albeit near a chair, leafing through a book she holds in her hands. She is elegantly dressed in a red dress embellished with lace, which stands out against the burnished background, accentuating her figure. Previously restored and relined, it is presented in an early 20th-century gilded frame.

Courtship Scene

Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. In the scene, set outside a mountain farmhouse, a young man in traditional costume courts the girl who is drawing water from the fountain, while a little girl watches them curiously. The Chioggia artist Achille Brusamini Naccari painted several genre scenes of popular taste, with figures in traditional costume, as well as costume scenes from Venetian capriccios or portraits. The work is presented in a golden frame from the early 1900s.

Copy from Raphael

Oil on canvas. Italian school, late 18th century. This is an early copy of the celebrated panel painting by Raphael Sanzio, created in 1513-1514 and currently housed in the Pitti Palace in Florence. Analysis of the crack and stretcher allow us to place this canvas within an early production, dating back to the 18th century. Raphael's work was notable and was widely replicated due to the intimate sweetness it exudes. The Virgin and Child embrace in a sweet embrace: Mary, reclining on a chair whose backrest can be glimpsed, abandons herself in a loving gesture, enveloping a plump Child in her soft arms. Her raised leg supports his weight while her inclined head touches his face, in a pose that emphasizes the sentimental nature of the painting. A little further back, Saint John the Baptist observes them, absorbed, his hands clasped in prayer. The viewer is also invited to participate in the scene through a careful interplay of gazes: Jesus, serious, gazes into the distance, while the Madonna directly engages the onlookers with a melancholic expression. The work is presented in a mid-19th-century gilded frame.

The Little Wild Valley

Oil on cardboard. Signed lower left. Label on the back with the title and the location Quarna Sotto, Novara. Carlo Casanova, landscape painter and engraver, settled in 1942 in Quarna Sotto, a small village in the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola (but previously part of the province of Novara), located in a mountain valley overlooking Lake Orta. This small town inspired the artist's many landscapes. The work is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. Signed lower right D'Elia Alfredo. Composition of pink dahlias and white flowering branches, similar to hawthorn, arranged in a glass vase against a dark background. The painting is presented in a contemporary wooden and gilded stucco frame.

Oil on canvas. A simple composition of variegated and multicolored flowers in a vase, with some scattered fruit on the surface. Previously restored and relined, the painting is presented in an 18th-century repainted frame.

Oil on panel. Unidentified signature lower right. The scene depicts a battle in the streets of a snowy village, between a group of invaders armed with swords, halberds, and a musket, and two citizens who have rushed in with their own sidearms. The work is presented in an early 20th-century frame.

Tempera on panel with silver riza (marks on the lower edge). Traditional half-length representation of Christ Pantocrator, or Governor of the Universe, blessing with his right hand and holding a closed or open Gospel, embodying his dual divine and human nature.

Ticino, Stormy Morning, 1946

Oil on cardboard. Signed lower right. Further signature, title, and date on the back. Anna Bocca, a Vigevano artist and daughter of her teacher, the painter Luigi, distinguished herself for her veristic work, influenced by Chiarismo, in her pursuit of dominant light effects on the scene. The work is presented in a contemporary frame.

Oil on stone (slate). Flemish school, 18th-19th century. The work is part of the production of a follower of Egbert Van Heemskerck (1634-1704), a Dutch painter of the Haarlem Golden Age known for his comic and satirical popular works. This work imitates his pictorial style in portraying a peasant who, already tipsy, clutches his amphora of wine as if it were a precious treasure! The work is presented in a period frame.

Tempera on panel. Traditional depiction of the Baptism of Jesus, standing in the waters of the Jordan, with the Baptist on his left, the archangels assisting him on his right, and the Father and the Holy Spirit acknowledging his divinity from above.

Enamels on wavy cardboard. Signed and dated on the back. Comes with a certificate of authenticity from Galleria Elite Trading (MI) and a photo authentication by the artist. Paolo Masi, born in Florence, participated since the 1950s in the experimental development of new artistic trends that in his city would become characterized, with a profound and never-healed break with the past, as a liberation from the canons of formalism and all forms of academicism, pursued with intensity and consistency. Masi moved from his initial experiences with informal painting and concrete abstraction to a multifaceted, complex, and diversified practice on a technical and linguistic level. Work in a plexiglass display case.

Fluorescent Polychrome Dynamics, 2019

Fluorescent paper on black cardboard. The back features a label from the artist's studio with the title, description, and date of the work. The work is published in the artist's catalog "Geometrie cromo-cinetiche" on page 26 (attached to the work). A graduate in Industrial Design, Dario Zaffaroni's artistic career traces its roots back to the 1960s. Visual perception is the cornerstone of his work. In the Cromodinamiche Fluorescenti series, he works with shapes, geometric reliefs, and fluorescent cut-out paper: the fluorescence acts as a powerful visual stimulus, almost as if it were a draw for attention. The geometric shapes, in their mathematical rigor, seem imprisoned in colored stripes that intersect like laces, bars, constraints. But as soon as the observer shifts their perspective, the forms free themselves and acquire dynamism and energy, inviting them to play with variations in tone, light, refractions, shadows, and shapes that result from the observer's movement relative to the artwork. The artwork is housed in a display case.

Oil on canvas. 18th-century Italian school. Amidst a rather barren coastal countryside, a small village overlooked by an imposing and massive tower, perhaps a silo or aqueduct. In the foreground, a herdsman rides his cows. The work has previously been restored and relined. It is presented in a late 19th-century frame.

Sea Glimpse

Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. In a stretch of Nordic sea, near a coastline inhabited by a small cluster of houses, a small boat braves the rough sea. The German painter Andreas Dirks made a name for himself with his Nordic seascapes featuring boats at the mercy of rough waters. The painting is presented in a mid-20th-century frame.

Oil on canvas. 18th-century Italian school. The landscape features a verdant countryside with rolling hills and a village overlooking a lake; in the foreground, a small group of shepherds rests on the edge of the path, while two goats graze nearby. The painting has previously been restored and relined. It is presented in a late 19th-century frame.

Oil on canvas. Genoese school, early 18th century. The man, whose thick wig suggests nobility or upper middle class status, wears a burnished metal breastplate, beneath which a lace cravat emerges from his scabbard. The breastplate features several family symbols. The portrait reflects the manner and style popular in Genoa in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, based on the French models of Rigaud. The painting has some paint loss. Still on its original canvas, it was previously mounted on an early 20th-century wooden stretcher. It is presented in an 18th-century frame.

Oil on canvas. 18th-century Italian school. The two compositions, placed outdoors, partly on the ground and partly on stone pedestals, include a watermelon with pears, the other a melon with pomegranates. Both canvases also feature cherries, considered symbols of fertility. Previously restored and relined, they are presented in antique, relacquered frames.

Italy, Early XX Century

Carved and lacquered wooden sculpture depicting the education of the Virgin, Saint Anne with the Child Mary. The Saint's robe has much of its gilding worn away.

Female Portrait

Watercolor on paper. Signed lower left. Vincenzo Migliaro always found Naples, with its vibrant popular life, his main source of inspiration. He depicted various figures from Neapolitan everyday life, both in specific settings and as half-length portraits, as in this case. The work has some moisture stains on the paper. Framed in period style.

Female Portrait

Watercolor on paper. Signed lower left. Vincenzo Migliaro always found Naples, with its vibrant popular life, his main source of inspiration. He depicted various figures from Neapolitan everyday life, both in specific settings and as half-length portraits, as in this case. The work has some moisture stains on the paper. Framed in period style.

Peasant at Work

Oil on cardboard. Signed lower center and signed on the back. The subject is part of the painter's strongly naturalistic oeuvre. A native of Modena, he grew up artistically in and around Milan, places that were frequent subjects in his landscape work. The landscape in which the peasant woman with her basket is depicted could well be the Lombardy plain. The work is presented in a period frame.