Antique Painting Signed Emilio Donnini Landscape with River '800 - Landscape with River and Figures

Oil on canvas. 19th-century Italian school. The myth of Procris and Cephalus is a famous and tragic story of love, jealousy, and betrayal recounted in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Cephalus, a handsome hunter, and Procris, princess of Athens, were involved in a series of misunderstandings and traps that led to her accidental death. In particular, the scene depicted here depicts the myth's tragic epilogue: Cephalus finds Procris dying, accidentally wounded by her unsuspecting husband's spear. The scene depicted here is modeled after Carlo Francesco Nuvolone, a leading exponent of the Lombard Baroque, for the same dramatic setting of the figures, set in a very different landscape, here uninhabited by other figures. The painting has been restored and re-stretched with a new professional stretcher frame.

Oil on canvas. The large painting depicts the Madonna seated on a stone bench with the baby Jesus in her arms, before a large curtain, with a sketchy landscape in the background. Despite its considerable size, the pictorial quality suggests an inexperienced hand, suggesting a handcrafted work created for devotional purposes for some popular place of worship. The canvas has several stains.

Oil on canvas. At the lower left, the date 1890 and an unidentified signature. (William Barry?) A broad landscape framing a valley between moorland hills, composed of rocks and low vegetation, through which a river flows. The predominantly brown tones of the vegetation prevail over the clarity of the river, further obscured by the reflection of the gray clouds. Framed in period style.

Oil on canvas. In the foreground, the ruins of a large classical-style building with imposing columns occupy the scene. In the background, across a stream, is a small castle with a bridge, shaded in blue-white hues that connect the water with the sky. On the front canvas, the painting shows traces of previous restorations. It is presented in a late 19th-century frame, regilded.

Central Italy, XVIII Century

Group of three small mirrors in carved and gilded wood. Molded frame embellished with leaf and scroll carvings, mercury mirrors, and originally gilded iron and sheet metal candle holders, one of which is missing. Restored and missing parts. Central Italy, 18th century.

Oil on canvas. 19th-century French school. Portrait of a young woman whose clothing reveals her membership in a working-class, though not rural, class. The work is presented in a 19th-century frame.

Oil on panel. The view depicts a solitary church perched on a rocky outcrop overlooking a stream that plunges into a deep, dark gorge; the surrounding peaks, though lush with vegetation, are devoid of life and evoke adventurous scenes. The chromatic and lighting effects are dominated by earthy tones. The work is characterized by an overall academic-romantic tone, organized according to a scenographic style. The panel shows some small paint losses and signs of a previous frame.

Embroidery on silk. The large, elegant champagne-colored silk panel is richly embroidered with a naturalistic motif in the same color, composed of flowering chrysanthemums and bamboo, upon which multicolored birds delicately rest. The embroidery was applied to canvas and framed in a metal frame with legs, serving as a room divider.

Oil on panel. Central European School, 19th century. The painting, conceived as an overdoor, features a port scene set within a frame with wooden friezes carved into the panel itself. In the scene, several figures in Nordic style animate a coastal port overlooked by a castle; in the right foreground, a man in Oriental dress supervises the unloading of crates from a longboat on the shore, possibly a wealthy Oriental merchant importing goods from his homeland. The painting features several small paint losses.

Figure of a Scholar in Reading

Oil on panel. Signed lower right. The paintings of Franke, an artist of Polish origin who trained and lived in Munich, are characterized by genre scenes, eighteenth-century settings, and Oriental subjects. They are all characterized by lively movement and color, extremely lively scenes with figures frozen in curious, almost exaggerated poses. In this painting, the man, elegantly dressed with a frock coat and wig, leans inelegantly against the table, intent on reading, a pencil in his mouth. His brightly colored figure emerges from the shadowy surroundings—a study. The work is presented in an early 20th-century frame.

Oil on canvas. 19th-century French school. Portrait of a young woman, likely in mourning, given her black dress and serious, melancholic expression. The dark colors of her dress and hair blend into the background, from which her face, neck, and white lace shawl collar emerge, illuminating the portrait. The canvas has slight paint loss. It is presented in an early 20th-century frame.

Study of Heads

Pencil on paper. Signed lower right. Following an initial academic phase, Neapolitan painter Domenico Morelli, following his contact with the Macchiaioli and his friendship with Filippo and Giuseppe Palizzi, gradually adopted a freer style, especially in his use of color, creating his own signature style that harmoniously blends verism and late romanticism with neo-17th-century influences. An active patriot, he painted everything from historical subjects to genre scenes, dabbled in Orientalism, and then moved on to religious painting. Presented here are studies of two heads with evident Oriental features. Framed in period style.