Antique Painting Landscape with Flock and Shepherds XIX Century - Landscape with Flock and Shepherds

Country Scene with Figures

Oil on canvas. Signed lower left. The scene depicts a group of peasants, both men and women, gathering baskets of flowers, making music and dancing to the sound of bagpipes and tambourines, with some taking the opportunity to flirt. It is therefore a popular country festival, a favorite subject of Barucci, a Roman painter who primarily depicted daily life in the countryside. His almost all-encompassing love for nature—the most authentic, barren, and realistic aspects of the Roman countryside and suburbs—led him to become one of the leading exponents of the rustic style. The brightness and vividness of the colors enhance the festive feel of the scene, underscoring the carefree, serene atmosphere of this moment of folk life. The work is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. Mid 19th century. The large scene tells an unidentified historical episode, set in the Renaissance period, in which an archbishop listens to the plea of a young man in arms, accompanied by his mother, who supports his plea. The setting is inside the reception hall of the high prelate, presumably in the bishop's palace, which from the loggia in the background overlooks the Cathedral, whose dome can be glimpsed; the bishop is surrounded by his subordinates and guards, while different people of the people attend. Particular is the presence of the man sitting in the foreground on the left, who looks towards the viewer and points to the scene, as if he were telling it. The atmosphere is played on the contrasts between lights and shadows, between the bright colors of the dominant characters compared to the dull and suffused tones of the surrounding figures, who literally tend to disappear into the shadows at the limits of the scene. The work is part of that large nineteenth-century production that drew on the historical or literary subject, re-proposing it in a romantic key. The painting, restored and relined, is presented in an important frame from the second half of the 19th century, with some shortcomings.

Oil painting on canvas. Roman school of the 17th century. The large scene represents the famous episode halfway between real history and legend, told for the first time by Tito Livio in his "Ab urbe condita libri" (the books of the "History of Rome from its foundation"). To populate the newly founded city, Romulus, founder and first king of the city, resorted to a stratagem: he invited the Sabines, who lived in the nearby city of Curi, to the Consualia festival, in honor of the god Neptune, and kidnapped their women. The painting depicts the moment in which the Romans kidnapped the Sabine women, forcibly taking them away from their companions, under the eyes of the king, who remained hidden behind the columns of the temple of the deity, the god Neptune, recognizable by the trident. In the center at the rear is the obelisk, which for the Romans acquired a symbolic meaning as war booty and testimony to imperial strength. The many figures intertwine with each other, chasing each other, overlapping, creating plays of bodies and chromatic effects. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in an antique frame.

Landscape with Figures

Oil painting on canvas. The large composition proposes a landscape with a large tree in the centre. to surmount with its sparse branches the countryside below, crossed by a stream and animated by various figures of commoners intent on activity or at rest; at the top right stands a fortress, which dominates the valley. Already attributed to Peruzzini from the Marches, the painting can certainly be traced back to his circle, due to the rapid and poorly aggregated pictorial strokes. Antonio Francesco specialized in landscape painting, undergoing the influence of Salvator Rosa and landscape painters such as Pietro Montanini and Pandolfo Reschi, and further influences also came to him from Nordic painters active in Italy, above all from Pieter Mulier known as il Tempesta. In his first works the originality of his painting can already be distinguished given a rapid drafting and an intense and brilliant chromatic timbre. The long artistic bond between Antonio Francesco Peruzzini and Alessandro Magnasco began in the early 1990s, following their meeting in Milan, where Peruzzini had settled; from this period onwards his painting seems to fall apart, through forms that become more dynamic and light, almost fantastic, to finally arrive at a style marked by an ever greater disintegration of the forms of nature and their movement. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Italian school of the eighteenth century. Within a rather barren landscape, with architectural ruins on the left and snow-capped peaks in the background on the right, some shepherds pass along the path, leading their flocks of cows, sheep and goats. In the Nordic landscape setting, the pinkish hue of the sky and the pastoral character of the scene give that idealistic atmosphere typical of eighteenth-century landscape painting, in which the satisfaction of feeling prevailed rather than the intention of realistic transposition. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.

Landscape with Water and Shepherds

Oil on canvas. In a green hilly countryside, where a stream flows, some shepherds sit whistling in the shade of the trees, while they check the flock that is drinking. Thick dark clouds gather in the sky. The style recalls the production of Marco Ricci, a painter from Belluno who became famous for his undoubted talent for naturalistic and architectural representation. His landscapes, still of a distinctly seventeenth-century taste, are already lit up by powerful and emotional lights, by dry and twisted trees, rocks and towers, cumulus clouds that suddenly break into vague flashes of blue, a complex repertoire that transfigures nature into a dramatic and restless representation. He became a point of reference for several other artists contemporary to him, who took up his style, as in this work. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.

Winter Landscape with Figures

Oil on canvas. In a wintry countryside landscape, sprinkled with snow, on the bare, dark, arid nature, a path winds through completely bare trees that leads to the village, and some wayfarers pass along it, while on the side some woodcutters are at work. A sky full of dark clouds looms over everything, although on the left there is a patch of blue. The style harks back to the production of Marco Ricci, a painter from Belluno who made a name for himself for his undoubted talent for naturalistic and architectural representation. His landscapes, still of a distinctly seventeenth-century taste, are already lit up by powerful and emotional lights, by dry and twisted trees, rocks and towers, cumulus clouds that suddenly break apart into vague flashes of blue, a complex repertoire that transfigures nature into a dramatic and restless representation. He became a point of reference for several other artists contemporary to him, who took up his style, as in this work. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. Venetian school of the 18th century. Large landscape of pre-Alpine hills, crossed by a stream that reaches the mill in the right foreground, while numerous figures of commoners animate the path that leads to the building, busy with various occupations; in particular, in the center foreground, the two fishermen with their nets stand out. Formerly attributed to Giuseppe Zais (1709 -1784), a Venetian painter who became famous for his large landscapes animated by figures, characterized by an airy luminosity and a care in the description of nature. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in an early 20th century frame.

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 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.