Painting by Giuseppe Solenghi - The Novice 1909

Mixed technique on paper. Initials AS at lower right. A bouquet of roses stands out against a blue background. The painting is presented in a contemporary ebonized frame, decorated with gilded carvings.

Oil on canvas. Unidentified signature lower right. An elegant and refined composition of roses in delicate shades of pink and white, arranged in a gilded metal basin, sits on a small table along with pomegranates, a symbol of fertility and prosperity, an embossed silver plate, and a casket containing a pearl necklace. The background, in a single, earthy, nuanced color, highlights the light effects of the flowers and objects.

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower right. Crescent-shaped, originally intended as a panel above a door, the canvas features a pleasant yet melancholic composition of loose roses arranged on a raised painted surface. The work 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.

Tempera on canvas. Signed Mimy and dated lower right. The scene, set in an elegant living room, features a group of ladies and gentlemen entertaining themselves musically during a reception: while a woman plays the spinet, a young couple dances. The work is presented in a period frame, with a large lack in the upper part.

Untitled, 1992

Mixed technique on paper. Signed lower center. The artist's stamp with the signature and date of the work is on the back. Caccioni, an artist born, trained, and still lives in Bologna, is one of the protagonists of a generation that has now reached a definitive linguistic maturity and occupies a prominent place within the contemporary art scene. His research primarily utilizes unusual materials such as acetates, PVC, and, more recently, stage backdrops from 19th-century plays, upon which he paints forms drawn from personal memory and influences from diverse cultures and historical periods. A recurring element in Luca Caccioni's work is writing, a self-signifying sign that shapes the work and is capable of expressing thoughts; working through superimposition, the images are constructed by adding or subtracting color across various supports. Framed.

Big New Year's Eve Party 1960

Mixed media on paper. Signed and dated lower right. A humorous and ironic presentation of the menu for the 1960 New Year's Eve party, by the renowned Russian set designer, painter, and illustrator Nicola Benois, who was the chief set designer at Milan's Teatro Alla Scala from 1935. The work includes a photo of a thank-you note that accompanied the piece, addressed to the friend with whom the artist shared the party. Framed work.

Mother with Child

Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. On the back there is a cartouche of authentication from "Meeting Art Roma"; with the data of the work, and stamp of provenance from the "Centro Artistico Mercurio, Milan". Giuseppe Migneco, originally from Messina but who moved to Milan when he was young, was one of the major representatives, together with Aligi Sassu, Renato Birolli, Bruno Cassinari, Renato Guttuso, of the Corrente group open to the European artistic avant-gardes. In favor of a painting of social commitment, he investigates reality with a critical, objective, historical eye. His characters with hard, square faces, marked by hard work and rendered with bright and strong tones, recall his Sicily with violent and clear features, but also the social realism of the Mexican muralists. In this work appear his characteristic figures (which could belong to both Sicily and Mexico!) engaged in a very prosaic and realistic activity of popular daily life, that is, a mother who combs and cleans her son's head, probably infested with parasites. The work is presented in a frame.

Figures of Lovers 1975

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower right. The painting belongs to ORAZI's production from the 1970s. In this phase the artist abandoned completely abstract and relief painting and returned to figurative painting, rendered however with simplified and distorted lines. In particular, he created the series called Lignes Circulaires and the one, to which this work belongs, of paintings called Têtes-Paysage, in which he created compositions that depict mysterious human heads or heads of fauns and mythological figures (sometimes accompanied by their insect companions), often couples of lovers kissing: the lines, in these paintings, intertwine to simultaneously form compositions, intertwining bodies, often in an erotic attitude. The work comes from the artist's family's private collection.

Figures, 1975 ca.

Oil on canvas. The painting belongs to ORAZI's production from the 1970s. In this phase the artist abandoned completely abstract and relief painting and returned to figurative painting, rendered however with simplified and distorted lines. In particular, he created the series called Lignes Circulaires and the one, to which this work belongs, of paintings called Têtes-Paysage, in which he created compositions that depict mysterious human heads or those of fauns and mythological figures (sometimes accompanied by their insect companions), often couples of lovers kissing: the lines, in these paintings, intertwine to simultaneously form compositions, intertwining bodies. Here we can perceive some figures, human and animal, probably mythological, engaged in an erotic plot. The work comes from the artist's family's private collection.

Composition, 1933

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower right. Partial label of the Galleria Pesaro in Milan on the back. The work belongs to the first period of the French artist ORAZI (a name he wanted written in capital letters), a period still linked to figurative painting, influenced by the historical avant-gardes, in particular by post-impressionism; already in this first phase, research on color has a dominant place in the representation of characters and objects. In this composition, the red and blue colors of the books, the bottle label, the feather, stand out against the soft and homogeneous colors of the other objects, among which the stone mask dominates the left hemifield. The work comes from the artist's family of origin. It is presented in a period frame.