Gilded Wooden Mirror Frame - Italy 20th Century

Landscape with River Glimpse 1906

Oil painting on canvas. Signed lower left. The Roman-born artist Cesare Maggi established himself as a pointillist landscape painter, portraying alpine landscapes in the Engadine and Aosta Valley, often enlivened by the inclusion of figures and animals. Becoming a friend of the painter Giacomo Grosso in Turin in 1901, he then successfully oriented himself towards the portrait genre, setting aside the pointillist technique. While still favoring high mountain views, he broadened his subjects by also engaging in seascapes and still lifes. In this work, still from the first period, Maggi portrays a glimpse of the countryside crossed by a calm river, bordered by rows of bare trees and small grassy hills, behind which the farmhouses overlook: already no longer linked to the techniques divisionist, the work is rather characterized by dense and opaque mixtures of color, in which the earth, the water and the farmhouses are superimposed in a continuum broken only by the band of sky above. The work is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas, applied on hardboard in the second half of the 1900s. The painting takes up the pictorial ways of the eighteenth century, with a decorative cut. In a peaceful landscape, with an architectural structure on the right and the green valley with the river opening on the left, two figures walk along the path, a woman with her bundle of clothes and the wayfarer with a saddlebag and a stick. The work is presented in a chronicle style.

Figure in Rest 1969

Pen on paper. Signed lower right. Accompanied by photo authentication from the Mario Tozzi Archive. In Maestro Tozzi's extensive production there are many drawings, such as this one presented here, made with different techniques (ink, pastel, pencil, sanguine), dedicated to the human figure: in his dry and stylized style, Mario Tozzi outlines stylized, refined figurines in their silent and discreet geometry, favored by the absence of color, which brings out the forms on the white paper. Even in his pictorial production, Mario Tozzi's favorite subjects are, classically, figures and still lifes, but both figures and death are a set of solid geometric elements, the sphere, the cylinder, the cone, etc. The bodies are elementary, essential in the lines and details, powerful, statuesque, composed of just modeled solids, while the still lifes are a celebration of Euclidean geometry such as the jugs, bowls, flasks which are paradigms of volume and geometric rigor . Mario Tozzi's compositions are influenced by Cubism for certain cuts, by Metaphysics for certain architectural insertions and by Abstractism for the insertion of geometric figures. The work is presented in a frame.

Winter landscape

Pastels on paper applied to canvas. Signed lower left. The large landscape is completely dominated by the play of colour: divided into two hemifields given by the sky and the earth (a mountainous land where sporadic fir trees sprout), it sees the pinkish blue of the sky prevail above, under the greenish blue of the snow on the ground , two shades of the same color range that then meet in the skyline of the mountains. Cinotti was a landscape painter who was an exponent of Italian Divisionism, whose painting is characterized by a material and pasty application with touches of spatulated color. In coeval frame.

Oil on canvas. German school of the mid-20th century. At the bottom right is the signature W. Purschke and the location Munchen. The scene is set inside the study of a high prelate: sitting at his desk he listens to two men who show him a route on a map; at the top left is placed on a shelf a model of a ship: perhaps the bishop is also the owner of the ship, who discusses the next trip with its owner. From the window, closed by a worked grille, you can glimpse the village, with houses with a characteristic Nordic appearance. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Inlay made with various woods. The inlay depicts the figure of a cellist in eighteenth-century dress. Francesco Ferrario was an accomplished cabinetmaker, influenced by the Neoclassical and Art Nouveau movements. Having trained in drawing at the Brera Academy, after collaborating with the finest artists of the time, he opened a workshop in Milan, first on Via Tenca, and then in 1927 on Corso Sempione. A label on the back of the work places it among the workshops of this latter location. The work is presented in a period frame. A version of this work appears in Bianca Tosatti's monograph, "I Ferrario maestri di tarsia," published in 2000.

Genre Scene at Court

Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. Antonio Zavaga was an Italian painter between the 19th and 20th centuries, specialized in 18th-century style painting, mainly of a gallant and salon setting. The scene of this work is also set in a rich 18th-century style hall: a lady and a gentleman sit at a table playing chess, while the lady-in-waiting brings tea and another gentleman watches amused. The work is presented in a painted frame from the late 19th-early 20th century.

Oil on canvas. The scene of the well-known evangelical episode of the adoration of the wise men is set in an unusual setting: the Holy Family is not in a hut or a stable, but in front of the architectural remains of an imposing marble building; placed on top of a hill, it sees in the background a flat landscape rich in vegetation and inhabited by villages with numerous bell towers. The figures of the kings and the family are depicted with delicate lines, bright but shaded colors, detailed details; moreover in the right corner of the scene appears an emaciated, poor, indistinct figure, a beggar who, hidden in the shadow of the palace, bows to pay homage to the little Jesus, on a par with the rich and powerful kings in his humble devotion. On the back of the canvas there are traces of small restorations. At the bottom right there is a slight cut. The work is presented in a period frame.

Sant'Ilario 1945

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower left. Title on the back of the frame. The painter Mario Guerzoni distinguished himself as a landscape painter, proposing glimpses of different parts of Italy, often coastal views. Sant'Ilario is located in the Riviera di Levante, in the Golfo Paradiso, on the slopes of the Ligurian Apennines. Framed.

Pian Rosa

Oil on board. Signed lower right. On the back in pencil a further signature and the location Pian Rosa. The title identifies the large glacier visible in the background, in the gap that opens between the plants of the plain in front of the Alpine chain. Pian Rosa (or Plateau Rosa) is a glacier located in the Swiss Valais in the Pennine Alps, just beyond the Italian-Swiss border, in the Matterhorn group. Luigi Comolli, an artist from Milan, distinguished himself for his landscape painting, mainly of northern Italy, and for his still lifes. The impressionist influence can be found in his works, drawn from his formative path in Paris in his youth. The work is presented in a frame.

Glimpse of Wooden Landscape

Oil on hardboard. Signed lower right. On the back in pencil, further signature and the location Oleggio Castello, a small town in the province of Novara. Luigi Comolli, an artist from Milan, distinguished himself for his landscape and still life paintings. His works show the impressionist influence, drawn from his formative experience in Paris in his youth. The work is presented in a frame.

Scene with Figures, 1950 ca.

Oil on canvas. It belongs to a group of works called Jeux de Symboles, created from 1945 to 1950 approximately, in which ORAZI's painting moves towards the production of the so-called Peinture du Mouvement, characterized by the work on the dynamic effects of the human body (and animals) in motion, emphasized by the strength of color. Color dominates this scene, strong, acid, bright color, which outlines almost geometric human and animal figures, with marked and clear contours, in which two different ethnic groups seem to be recognized in comparison. The canvas has small losses of color. It comes from the artist's family collection.