PAINTINGS ONLINE | ANCIENT AND CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY

The Nine Muses

Tapestry. The word Euterp appears at the bottom right. The enormous grass juice depicts the nine Muses, female Greek divinities, all sisters, as daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, and having the god Apollo as their guide. They represented the supreme ideal of Art, understood as the truth of the "Everything" or the "eternal magnificence of the divine". Initially considered in a generic way as divinities of song and joyous dances, responsible for putting into music and verse stories such as the origin of the world, the birth of gods and men, the exploits of Zeus, and often depicted accompanied by various musical instruments, starting from the Hellenistic era, all singing and musical expressions were associated with them, including sad and funeral ones, and other arts such as theatre, and each of them was associated with a specific genre of art, so that they could be invoked individually to exercise their inspiration and protection. The word "Euterp"refers to the name of one of them, Euterpe, muse of lyric poetry and music, traditionally depicted with a flute; but the name Euterpe etymologically means "She who cheers" who brings joy, and one can therefore think that the choice of this name to title the tapestry refers to the most ancient function of the Muses, those of bringers of joy through art. In this presentation, the muses appear dancing, dressed in veils and flowering branches; in their hands or placed next to them, instruments or other objects symbolizing the art that they inspire appear (both tragic and comic theatrical masks, the pictorial palette, various musical instruments...). The large painting has signs of wear and humidity stains.

Oil painting on canvas. Northern European school of the 18th century. The allegorical scene presents a scantily clad woman sitting on a man's lap, near a table set with a jug, a chalice, a snuffbox and a lit cigar. The two characters are in an attitude of playful complicity, both intent on smoking a long pipe. The background offers a leafy landscape. The figures and objects refer to the material and carnal pleasures of life, smoking, drinking, female company; the rosy and plump characters also recall the pleasure of good food. These subjects were recurrent in Flemish or more generally Nordic painting, which proposed them in an ironic and alluring way. The painting, restored and relined, is presented in a period frame.

Embroidery on cotton fabric. Japan, Meiji period (1868 -1912). The large panel in embroidered cotton fabric offers a naturalistic subject: eagles and other birds are depicted among stylized mountains, and pine and wisteria branches. The embroidery is presented in style frame.

Oil painting on canvas. It is the portrait of Prince Tommaso Francesco of Savoy (1596 -1656), founder of the Savoy-Carignano branch. In fact, in 1620, by order of his father, he became Prince of Carignano, giving rise to the Savoy-Carignano line, from which the future Kings of Italy of the House of Savoy would descend. This portrait derives from the original of 1634 created by Antoon Van Dick, now preserved at the Gemaldegallerie in Berlin, and subsequently also reproduced with etching, from which this version probably derives. It is slightly different from the original in some details:. it is narrower in size, the stick held by the prince is shorter, the draping curtain behind the man is less developed. The painting has been restored and relined. It is presented in an antique frame adapted to the canvas.

Oil painting on canvas. This is a small copy of Titian's work of the same name, created around 1532 and today preserved in the Louvre Museum. Originally it was thought that the work portrayed Alfonso d'Avalos, marquis of Vasto, bidding farewell to his wife before going to fight the Turks. Instead, it is more likely a prototype of a matrimonial allegory that enjoyed widespread success in Venice. The spouses are represented in the guise of Mars (in armour) and Venus, and are accompanied by Cupid, protector deity of love, who holds a bundle of arrows, by Vesta, goddess of the domestic hearth, crowned with myrtle, symbol of marital fidelity , and by Hymenaeus, divinity of weddings who offers a basket of fruit and flowers. The woman holds a crystal ball, as if she wanted to peer into the future. The melancholic expressions of the protagonists have been read as a reference to the possible death or departure of one of the two spouses. The painting is presented in a contemporary frame.

Oil painting on canvas. The painting portrays the face of an elderly saint, holding a lily in his hand, a symbol of purity, while reading a large book, presumably a sacred text. It is presumably a representation of Saint Joseph: if tradition usually has him represented with Baby Jesus in his arms, starting from the Renaissance Joseph began to also be depicted absorbed in reading a book, in the guise of a "philosopher", or a man who drew the wisdom of knowing how to make right and wise choices from reading sacred texts. The work is presented in a contemporary frame.

Oil on wooden board. The small glimpse represents a wooded glimpse, leafy and shaded, in which various figurines stroll and enjoy themselves. The signature AJ Garnier appears at the bottom center, which refers to the French artist Alfred Jean Garnier (1848 -1908), enameller, painter and engraver. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil painting on canvas. The two still lifes propose compositions of objects placed on wooden tables covered with damask fabrics and surmounted by draped curtains. Among the objects depicted in both scenes there are musical scores, in one case also a flute, and glasses of particular shapes, filled with wine, flanked by embossed metal jugs. Some books, a pomegranate and a crystal vase with flowers in a painting also appear; a plate of cherries with a ceramic cup, a lemon and a branch of raspberries in the other canvas. The two works are presented in gilded frames from the early 1900s.

Portraits of Children, 1930

Photographs retouched with pastels. Signed bottom right. On the back of three of them is the date 11 November 1930. A photographic sequence of the portrait of three children is shown, who slightly change their pose or expression. They are the work of the British photographer Eva Barrett who, after an initial experience as a painter, decided to dedicate herself to photography, thinking that "it was better to be a first-rate photographer than a second-rate [painter]. Having moved to Rome in 1913, she established her laboratory here. Pictorialist, with a small camera, Eva Barrett created her own photographic method that was reminiscent of drawing sketches: she applied a few very light pencil strokes, managing to create subdued images but with particularly dense blacks, thus maintaining the characteristics of photography and portraits. In this way he was very successful and his career took off. Eva Barrett photographed the Italian royal family, the wives and children of foreign ambassadors, as well as received numerous commissions from European royalty in Belgium, Sweden, Greece. The four portraits are presented in style frames.

Bice and Ottorino Visconti

Oil painting on canvas. Signed lower left. The title on the back on the frame. The Milanese painter Filippo Carcano, who was a pupil of Hayez at the Brera Academy, dedicated himself to the production of historical and historical-literary subjects especially at the beginning of his career, then moving on to genre scenes and scenes of social interest and then to landscape . Here he proposes the horseback portraits of two characters taken from the novel Marco Visconti by Tommaso Grossi, which tells of the impossible love between Bice del Balzo and Ottorino Visconti against the backdrop of fourteenth-century Lombardy, between Limonta, on Lake Como, Milan and the castle of Rosate. The painting is presented in a late 19th century gilded frame.

Oil painting on canvas. French school late 18th - early 19th century. The wide view frames a hilly landscape rich in vegetation and meadows, near the sea coast, animated by various boats; inserted on the left there is a small village, towards which two travelers are heading on the path. In the background there are some white and steep rocky stretches, which recall the coasts of Northern France. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a gilded frame from the early 1900s.

Paintings on paper. Asia, first half of the 20th century. The miniatures depict six male characters, intent on different activities, painted in imitation of the style of Reza Abbasi, Persian miniaturist, painter and calligrapher (1565 – 1635). The figures are inscribed in an applied paper frame, and surrounded by monochromatic leaf and floral decorations. They are presented in stylish frames.

Oil on canvas. Portrait of a middle-aged woman, dressed entirely in black, perhaps for mourning. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a contemporary gilded frame.

Oil painting on canvas. French school. At the bottom left are the signature and date written backwards; the signature is readable as H. Faillade. At the bottom right there is the Latin writing " Quando ex exilio redibit!!!"; (When he returns from exile!). This writing underlines the bond of the man portrayed with the young general depicted in the small picture that he holds in his hand, probably his relative and linked to the monarchy of Charles, the last sovereign of the Bourbon-France dynasty, absolutist and anti-liberal monarch, overthrown from the throne and fled in exile in 1830 during the July Revolution, known as the Second French Revolution. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil painting on canvas. The scene takes place near a military camp: outside a tent on the left an army leader, probably Greek, is receiving offerings from a group of men, poor and ragged, who prostrate themselves before the new master; the first is holding out some loaves of bread, another is taking something out of a sack, the third is showing the wounds on his body to ask for mercy; behind them other figures of beggars are approaching, forming a scattered line on the path fading into the distance on the right. In the background on the left, life in the military camp is bustling. The painting has been restored and relined.

Landscape with River and Figures 1878

Watercolor and pencil on paper. Signed and dated lower left. We know of several landscape views of the English countryside by the English painter Henry Clifford Warren, mostly painted in watercolour. Here is a view of a wooded countryside crossed by a wide river, with a shepherd leading his cows to graze on the hill in the foreground. Presented in a frame.