Walnut Drop-Leaf Cabinet - Genoa Mid-18th Century

Ornaments and Ancient Vases

Hand-colored etchings. Created by Michelangelo Pergolesi in 1777-1778; the colored decoration is a posthumous work, dating back to the 19th century. Pergolesi designed and created furniture, fireplaces, ceilings, chandeliers, doors, and wall ornaments in the neoclassical style, working primarily in England. The drawings for these etchings are numbered and likely belong to the "Disegni per Vari Ornamenti per 70 Piatti" (Designs for Various Ornaments for 70 Plates), published between 1777 and 1801. The two etchings are presented in exposed frames.

Oil on canvas. In this work, the Holy Family addresses a young friar in a Franciscan habit, likely a reference to the commissioner: the Child's outstretched hands reach out to embrace him, under the protective gaze of Mary and Joseph. Previously restored and relined, the painting is presented in an antique 18th-century frame, regilded.

Oil on canvas. Country landscape with a small stream flowing by, near which stands a cluster of rural buildings; several figures on the path. The work shows traces of previous restoration and relining. Dirt stains. It is presented in a contemporary antique frame.

Oil on canvas. Country landscape featuring a small stream, boats traversing it, and flanked by small clusters of rural homes. In the foreground, a woman and her child are walking along the path. The work shows traces of previous restoration and relining. Dirt stains. It is presented in a contemporary antique frame.

Oil on canvas. Central Italian School, 17th-18th century. In a landscape of barren, rocky slopes, a herd of oxen and goats is depicted in the foreground, tended by a pair of shepherds riding donkeys. The work is presented in a period frame. Previously relined, it has some minor paint loss.

Europe, XVIII-XIX Century

A group of earthenware plates with a strong vitreous component. The rim is engraved with basket motifs and plant racemes.

Oil on canvas. Northern Italian school, early 18th century. A landscape of rocky hills features a village of turreted buildings, rising near the seashore, visible in the background on the right. In the foreground, along a small coastal inlet, popular life is bustling, with numerous figures engaged in various activities. The painting shows signs of previous restoration and relining; the crack is currently well-defined, but the color is still intact. The painting is presented in an antique frame, with minor losses.

Oil on canvas. 18th-century Tuscan School. The large scene tells the tragic story of Apollo and Daphne, recounted in Ovid's Metamorphoses. According to myth, the god Apollo, having mocked Cupid, is struck by him with an arrow of love, causing him to fall in love with the nymph Daphne, who is instead struck by a leaden arrow, capable of ending their love. Apollo, struck by the arrow, falls madly in love with Daphne and runs toward her, but the nymph rejects the god and runs away. To avoid being captured, Daphne asks her father Peneus, eponymous god of the river Peneus, to transform her so she will not have to submit to Apollo. Peneus listens to her request, and when Apollo is about to seize her, Daphne transforms into a laurel tree, a plant that from that moment on becomes sacred to the god. The work displays some similarities to the pictorial style of Giuseppe Zocchi (1711-1767), whom the artist likely drew upon in particular in the depiction of trees and vegetation. The canvas features several paint losses, especially in the lower left corner, and a series of holes (of varying sizes along the edges and in the center) caused by previous nails placed for reinforcement. Framed.

Italy 18th-19th Century

Carved and gilded wooden mecca torch holder.

Oil painting on canvas. Of a bucolic and serene flavor, the scene set in the countryside on the edge of the village that can be glimpsed on the left, sees a woman and her son who, near a stream, await the shepherd with his flock with a lunch basket . 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. The coastal glimpse, near a rocky inlet where torrential waters flow, sees figures at the landing place of the ships, ready to welcome the boats that are approaching; in the distance the profile of the city. Restored and relined, the painting has widespread dirt stains especially in correspondence with the sky. It is presented in a stylish frame.