Painting Landscape with Stream Mill and Figures

Oil on canvas. The large painting tells the famous mythological episode of the Judgement of Paris, the event that helped trigger the Trojan War. Paris, a Trojan prince, was called to settle the dispute between the three goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, over who deserved to be awarded the golden apple to "the most beautiful", thrown by the goddess Discord on the table of the gods. Each of the three goddesses promised Paris a reward in exchange for the apple, and he chose Aphrodite, who had promised him the most beautiful woman in the world, namely Helen, the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. In the large scene, Paris is sitting in the center, between the legs of the goddess Aphrodite, to whom he holds out the apple with his raised arm; Aphrodite is taking the apple with one hand, while she turns upwards to indicate to the god Cupid, hovering above her, to carry out his task. On the left, the other two goddesses turn their backs, indignant and frowning, while above the god Mercury decrees Aphrodite's victory, pointing at her with his staff, the caduceus symbol of the agreement reached, and the god Cupid, on Aphrodite's instructions, prepares the fiery arrow with which he will make Helen fall in love with Paris. The scene is completed by a putto who pours water from a vase from above, perhaps a sort of baptism, or consecration of the choice. The imposing and strongly carnal figures fill the scene in a tangle of bodies, which with the variation of the flesh colors - pale those of the divinities, more vivid that of the shepherd prince, (the only mortal in the fact!), but all played out in a single chromatic range -, create a chromatic homogeneity. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. The large painting represents the triumph of the god Bacchus, incarnation of pleasure, who, now drunk, sits on the ground, holding between his legs a jar from which wine flows, while around him various Maenads dance, play, and a bejeweled woman, perhaps Ariadne of royal lineage, throws flower petals on his head; above, an angel plays a trumpet as a sign of celebration, while at the bottom left, two small satyrs are sleeping, crouched on the ground. The intertwining of the bodies and the rather homogeneous chromatic range, which goes from the pale pink flesh tones of the nymphs to the earthy ruby color of Bacchus, fading into the reddish background, give the scene uniformity but ample movement. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. The large scene is set outside a rocky fortress and features a garrison of soldiers preparing for battle: in the foreground on the left, near a tree, the group of commanders on horseback observe the work and give orders, while the troops arm the cannons on the ramparts, prepare rudimentary lances and sharpen their sidearms. The colors are clear and dull, with shades of gray that pass from the clear sky with clouds to the rocky fortress, to get lost in the ground, turning to a sandy beige; only a few of the officers' uniforms stand out, breaking the chromatic uniformity. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a golden frame from the early 1900s.

Oil on canvas. Second half of the 18th century. A portion of a large ruined architectural structure fills the entire scene: a porch surmounted by a balustrade, overgrown with plants, surrounds a courtyard where various popular figures move, busy with their activities. A bright blue sky surmounts the structure and the light filters through one of the arches to create a play of light and shadows under the portico. On the back of the frame there is an attribution to Gaetano Vetturali (1701-1783), even if the quality of the figures here appears superior to those of the artist from Lucca, who established himself in his territory for his architectural caprices of great scenographic impact. The painting is presented in a gilded frame in style.

Oil on canvas. The woman depicted in the scene can be traced back to Porzia, the Roman noblewoman and wife of Brutus, who lived in the 1st century BC: according to legend, she committed suicide by swallowing a burning coal, and it is in this fatal moment that she is depicted here. The painting is very close to the pictorial methods of the painting of the same name from the Cignani school, attributed to his pupil Marcantonio Franceschini and preserved at Palazzo Tozzoni in Imola. The figure of Porzia, placed in an interior with classical elements, occupies the entire field of the scene, and is depicted sitting in front of the burning brazier, in the act of putting the coal in her mouth; her expression reveals the suffering of the gesture she is making, but also her determination, her gaze looking into the distance already places her far from the life she is leaving. The painting has been restored and relined. It is presented in an antique 18th century frame.

Landscape with Shepherds and Herds

Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. In a splendid classical landscape, with green hills overlooking a watercourse, a stream in the foreground that then becomes a wide river in the distance, are inserted the figures of a shepherd and a shepherdess who lead their flock to water. The pastoral scenes of this type characterized the production of the Dutch artist Michiel Carree, who was court painter to the King of Prussia in the first decades of the 18th century. The painting, in the first canvas, is presented in a contemporary golden frame, in carved and gilded wood.

Oil on canvas. Roman school of the second half of the 17th century. The scene tells an episode of the love story between the queen of Egypt and the Roman triumvir Anthony: Cleopatra, to demonstrate her wealth and seduce the handsome general, organizes a sumptuous banquet, during which she chooses a pearl of inestimable value and dissolves it in vinegar, then offering the drink, considered a powerful aphrodisiac, to Anthony. In the painting the queen is preparing to put the pearl in the cup: the ribbon to which the pearl is tied is particular, reminiscent of the one in the painting of the same name by Carlo Maratta (1625 -1713). Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a wooden frame from the late 19th century.

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.

Oil painting on canvas. The large painting recalls the pictorial methods of the 17th century but is from a later period, and was created on a canvas applied to an older one. The scene tells the biblical episode (taken from the Book of Kings) widely narrated pictorially, depicting the bath of Bathsheba, the wife of General Uriah, in the service of King David. According to the biblical story, David is on the terrace of his palace when he notices the woman bathing in the garden of her home, surrounded by her handmaids. Davide falls in love with her and seduces her, making her pregnant. To hide the crime, he recalls General Uriah from the front, to make him lie down with his wife, but Uriah does not want to leave his soldiers; then David sends him to fight on the front line hoping that he will be killed: this happens and David can marry Bathsheba, but he will be punished by God for the adultery and impiety committed. The painting shows the moment in which Bathsheba, having just come out of the bathroom, while she is reflected in the mirror held by a slave girl, and surrounded by other servants, reads the note that King David sent her; the latter appears at the top right, overlooking the terrace. The scene is dominated by female figures intertwined with each other, in a tangle of clothes and fabrics, and surrounded by flowers from the garden; in the center stands the mirror in a rich golden frame. The painting has a patch at the bottom right. It is presented in an antique gilded frame.