Triple painting by Giuseppe Viviani - Glimpses of Milan

The Involuntary Confession

Oil on canvas. This is a copy of a painting by Benjamin Vautier from 1881, sold at a Sotheby's auction in 1998. The Swiss artist specialized in popular genre scenes: in this painting, two young women walking along the path leading out of the little church behind them exchange secrets, unaware of the priest sitting reading his breviary on the bench behind the tree! The work is presented in a period frame.

Vase of Carnations

Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. The Pisan artist was best known as an engraver (he taught engraving at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence) but also devoted himself to painting, which he achieved with remarkable originality and extraordinary poetic depth, using colors that he himself defined as "the colors of the soul". Although he favored popular subjects, flowers were also often the subject of his works, so much so that a section of a recent (2023) retrospective dedicated to him in Pisa was titled "The Colors and Flowers of the Soul". The work is presented in a contemporary frame.

Oil on canvas. The signature G. Freye appears at the bottom left, which may attribute the work to Georg Hermann Freye (1844-1921), a Dresden artist known primarily for his religious and historical works. The genre scene draws on subjects and styles from 17th- and 18th-century Dutch painting. Set in a private home, it depicts a family meal, with the stern father speaking to his more light-hearted son, under the smiling and complicit gaze of his mother. The work is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. Early 1900s. This high-quality painting was created by an anonymous artist inspired by the works of Vittorio Reggianini (1858-1938), who enjoyed enormous success with his interior and living room scenes, depicting women or children engaged in everyday, often recreational, pursuits, like these two ladies enjoying tea and chatting amiably. The painting is presented in a contemporary frame.

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.

Horse in a 1950s Landscape

Marker on rice paper, glued to cardboard. Signed at the bottom. Below is a dedication from the artist (Greetings dear - Aligi). The work is accompanied by a photo certificate from the Sassu Foundation, archive number PNV49. The protagonist of this drawing is once again the horse, the artist's favorite animal. He was fascinated by the energy and dynamic strength of these animals, which represented life itself and freedom, which Sassu expressed through the twisting of their figures. Sassu's works, which include painting, sculpture, and ceramics, showcase the power of horses in scenes of racing, battles, or immersed in nature, often with an emphasis on dynamism and plastic energy. Framed work.

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.

Landscape with Figures

Mixed media on cardboard. Signed lower left. Stamp of the artist's studio on the back. The painter of Apulian origins Giuseppe Casciaro, painter and teacher at the Institute of Fine Arts in Naples where he trained, was essentially a landscape painter and produced in particular views of the surroundings of Naples, Irpinia (Nusco) and Puglia. He preferred the pastel painting technique in which he excelled. Here is a glimpse of a Mediterranean countryside, crossed by a path with wayfarers. It is presented in a period frame.

The Medical Herb Seller

Oil on canvas. West Africa. The naive-style painting depicts a woman selling medicinal herbs, holding a sign indicating the ailments she cures. These types of paintings, often used as advertisements for market stalls, reference traditional African values of motherhood, fertility, and prosperity, but transposed into a contemporary cultural context.

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.

The Shawl Portrait of a Mexican Woman ca. 1950

Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. The French painter ORAZI stayed in Mexico in 1955 and then in 1956-57, which was an exceptionally attractive world for intellectuals and artists of the time. The natural scenery, the customs and traditions of the local population were the themes that converged in the series of paintings called Peintures sur le Mexique, landscapes, compositions and portraits without giving in to the taste for the exotic, with an extremely careful work on the color to represent, without descriptivism, the elements of nature and the figures of men and women, already projected towards abstraction. This pictorial series, composed of 35 pieces, was then exhibited in 1957, upon his return to France, at the Vendôme Gallery in Paris. The painting comes from the private collection of the artist's family.