Swatch Square Subz100 Christmas Special Vintage Box 2000 - Switzerland, 2002

Oil on canvas. Wooded landscape with a wide path traversed by various popular figures. The frame bears the attribution to Massimo D'Azeglio: the artist of this landscape undoubtedly drew inspiration from the style of the politician and patriot, who was also a painter and writer. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Female Face

Tempera on paper. Signed lower left. Female portraiture is a recurring theme in Antonio Pagnotta's work, characterized by faces that emerge from a play of color and light. Framed.

Oil on panel. The painting harks back to 17th-century painting styles. The subject—the Virgin depicted bare-breasted, caught in the act of breastfeeding her Son—has always been widespread and a subject of devotion, as it emphasizes the human dimension and the strong bond between mother and child, even as Jesus' gaze directed toward the viewer reminds us that He came to save humanity. The painting is presented in a late 19th-century frame.

Gouache on paper. A typical landscape painting of the Grand Tour, intended to commemorate the formative journeys to Italy and Europe that were popular among young European aristocrats in the 18th and 19th centuries. Paper is often used as a base for these travel "postcards," as it is lighter and easier to carry. This painting depicts a glimpse of the Mediterranean countryside, with remains of classical antiquities. The work is presented in a contemporary gilded frame (restoration required due to damage and missing parts).

View of Macugnaga 1930

Oil on panel. Signature, dedication, date, and location in the lower left. Giuseppe Gheduzzi, an artist born into a family of artists, distinguished himself as a landscape painter but also for his interiors featuring figures, stables, and antique shops, along with fresh Orientalist themes and striking seascapes. Recurring themes in his work, as in that of his brother Cesare, include views of Macugnaga, a town in the Piedmont Alps. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Crayons on cardboard. Elegant half-length figure of a woman seated in an armchair. The painting is presented in a contemporary gilded frame, which has minor losses and damage.

Oil on canvas mounted on panel (probably a portion of a larger painting). In a vast landscape with a glimpse of a village, a shepherdess leads her cows to pasture. The hues of the animals and the human figure blend with those of the land and the houses, beneath a sky pale with the fading light of sunset. The work is presented in a period frame.

Copy from Guido Reni

Oil on canvas. This work is one of several replicas, with some variations, of the famous subject created by the Bolognese painter Guido Reni (1574-1642) and his workshop. The composition, which features the Virgin in prayer, bent over to adore the sleeping Child, is considered a brilliant invention of Reni's style. Following its great success among collectors of the time, it was later taken up by other 17th-century artists, among whom Giovan Battista Salvi, known as "Il Sassoferrato", stands out. The two most famous variations of this fascinating scene show the Virgin with her hands clasped in prayer, as in this version, adopted by Salvi, or with her hands on her chest, a typical Renian motif. Other variations concern the position of the sleeping Child's head, turned upward as in this version, rather than reclining to one side; finally, the background fabrics are different. Yet even in this replica, the intensity of the scene stands out: the body of the child, resting in repose, dominates the scene, where the divine nature subdues the human in sleep; above it, leaning in a protective yet contemplative gesture, is Mary's body, expressing all her maternal tenderness but also, in the gestures of her hands, adoration of the incarnate mystery represented by her son. The vivid colors of the fabrics—the cushion on which Jesus lies, the curtain behind it, the Mother's clothes—enhance the luminosity of the flesh tones. The painting was relined in the mid-20th century.

Cain and Abel

Wood inlay. The scene is set in a countryside with trees resembling olives and a city in the background; in the left foreground, a man furiously beats another man on the ground with a stick, under the alarmed gaze of a farmer. The scene recalls the biblical episode of the killing of Abel, a farmer, by his brother Cain, a hunter. The work is presented in an 18th-century frame.