ANCIENT PAINTING - Page 4

Oil on canvas. The wide view frames a snowy mountain landscape, with a wide valley under sharp peaks, in which a small lake opens up; small figures of wayfarers walk along the path that starts from the village on the left. The whiteness of the snow creates a muffled and luminous atmosphere, in contrast with the dark cloudy sky. The painting is presented in a golden frame from the early 1900s.

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.

Oil on canvas. Second half of the 18th century. A portion of a large ruined architectural structure fills the entire scene: a porch surmounted by a balustrade, overgrown with plants, surrounds a courtyard where various popular figures move, busy with their activities. A bright blue sky surmounts the structure and the light filters through one of the arches to create a play of light and shadows under the portico. On the back of the frame there is an attribution to Gaetano Vetturali (1701-1783), even if the quality of the figures here appears superior to those of the artist from Lucca, who established himself in his territory for his architectural caprices of great scenographic impact. The painting is presented in a gilded frame in style.

Oil on canvas. The painting, made in the first half of the 1900s, takes up the landscape works in the subject and in the pictorial mode: in a landscape rich in vegetation and with peaks in the background, a young commoner asks for charity from some travelers who rest on the roadside , near a stone arch. The canvas has undergone aging and is presented in a late 19th century frame.

Oil on canvas. Northern Italian school of the late 18th-early 19th century. In the wide landscape, which allows the gaze to wander over a vast plain with soft hills that loom on the horizon, an architectural ruin in stone is inserted on the right, while on the left a bridge, equally old and ruined, crosses the river. Numerous figures of wayfarers, on foot or on horseback, fill the scene. The painting, still on its first canvas, is presented in a golden frame from the early 20th century.

Oil on canvas. Central European school of the late 18th century. The large painting offers a rural landscape, with a peasant house on the left, the shepherdess in the foreground on the left who watches her flock of sheep watering in the nearby stream. The atmosphere of muted colors and soft lights, with pink clouds in the sky, recalls a quiet and peaceful twilight. On the first canvas, the painting is presented in a contemporary regilded frame.

David Playing the Harp

Oil on canvas. Northern Italian school of the 17th century. The scene depicts the biblical episode taken from the First Book of Samuel which thus tells: "Now when the evil spirit permitted by God came upon Saul, David took the harp and began to play; Saul felt relieved, he felt better, and the evil spirit departed from him." In the painting the figures are powerful and vigorous, both King Saul and the guards who hold him, depicted in a tangle of figures that occupies the entire left part of the scene; on the right instead is David, who although young and simple shepherd, stands calmly before the furious king, playing his instrument with dignity and firmness. In the background on the right, in a corridor of the palace, the priests and the king's advisors watch the dinner in dismay. On the frame of the painting is a plaque attributing it to Bernardo Strozzi. The painting was restored and relined in the mid-1900s, and is placed in a gilded frame in style.

Oil on canvas. The woman depicted in the scene can be traced back to Porzia, the Roman noblewoman and wife of Brutus, who lived in the 1st century BC: according to legend, she committed suicide by swallowing a burning coal, and it is in this fatal moment that she is depicted here. The painting is very close to the pictorial methods of the painting of the same name from the Cignani school, attributed to his pupil Marcantonio Franceschini and preserved at Palazzo Tozzoni in Imola. The figure of Porzia, placed in an interior with classical elements, occupies the entire field of the scene, and is depicted sitting in front of the burning brazier, in the act of putting the coal in her mouth; her expression reveals the suffering of the gesture she is making, but also her determination, her gaze looking into the distance already places her far from the life she is leaving. The painting has been restored and relined. It is presented in an antique 18th century frame.

Landscape with Shepherds and Herds

Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. In a splendid classical landscape, with green hills overlooking a watercourse, a stream in the foreground that then becomes a wide river in the distance, are inserted the figures of a shepherd and a shepherdess who lead their flock to water. The pastoral scenes of this type characterized the production of the Dutch artist Michiel Carree, who was court painter to the King of Prussia in the first decades of the 18th century. The painting, in the first canvas, is presented in a contemporary golden frame, in carved and gilded wood.

Oil on canvas. Roman school of the second half of the 17th century. The scene tells an episode of the love story between the queen of Egypt and the Roman triumvir Anthony: Cleopatra, to demonstrate her wealth and seduce the handsome general, organizes a sumptuous banquet, during which she chooses a pearl of inestimable value and dissolves it in vinegar, then offering the drink, considered a powerful aphrodisiac, to Anthony. In the painting the queen is preparing to put the pearl in the cup: the ribbon to which the pearl is tied is particular, reminiscent of the one in the painting of the same name by Carlo Maratta (1625 -1713). Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a wooden frame from the late 19th century.

Oil on the table. Northern European school of the 17th century. The scene depicts an episode in the life of Scipio narrated by Tito Livio and Valerio Massimo. Publius Cornelius Scipio, later known as Scipio the African, in 209 BC. during the Spanish campaign, after the capture of Cartagena he received as a personal gift a beautiful virgin, who was in the group of hostages. But he, listening to the pleas of his family, respected her by sending her back to her parents and fiancé, with the only recommendation that her betrothed work for peace between Rome and Carthage. In the representation Scipio is in the center, seated on his throne, and turns to the left, to the suppliant parents of the girl, while with a merciful gesture, he indicates to them to take back his daughter, standing on the right, flanked by her boyfriend. All around, soldiers and followers of the king. The scene is full of figures, bright and colorful, and underlines the positivity of the king, a central and powerful character, but capable of meekness and clemency. The restored painting has been reinforced on the back with wooden strips. It is presented in a stylish frame.

Oil on canvas. Lombard school of the late 17th-early 18th century. The rich composition offers a large bouquet of colorful flowers in an embossed vase, next to a bowl full of porcini mushrooms and a bunch of grapes: with different intensities of color, the various naturalistic elements emerge from the completely dark background, creating effects of lights and shadows. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in an early 20th century frame.

Oil on canvas. Flemish school of the 18th century. Lively and animated scene, depicting a popular festival in the village: a group of men and women in front of the village inn, recognizable by the sign, dance accompanied by musicians on the left, while the people around observe, drink, chat. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a gilded frame in period.

Oil on canvas. In the beautiful composition you can see, resting on an inlaid wooden sideboard, a basket full of cherries, some of which are scattered on the top, and a plate full of red currants, mixed with leaves and a few cherry blossoms. A goldfinch rests on the handle of the basket; to frame the composition, on the right a large bouquet of multicolored flowers in a vase, on the left a red curtain. The bright colors of the fruits, the flowers and the curtain stand out, while the support cabinet blends into the dark background, as does the little bird, distinguishable from the dark background only by the white plumage on the wings and the red outline of the eyes. The work is part of the large 17th century Emilian production of this highly decorative type of subject. The painting, restored and relined, has a marked crack and drops of color along the edges.

Oil on canvas. Lombard school of the late 17th-early 18th century. The rich composition offers a large bouquet of colorful flowers in an embossed vase, next to two large pumpkins and mixed fruit (grapes and peaches): with different intensities of color, the various naturalistic elements emerge from the completely dark background, creating effects of lights and shadows. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in an early 20th century frame.

The Tale of Apollo and Marsyas

Oil painting on canvas. Northern Italian school of the seventeenth century. The large canvas derives from an engraving of 1562 by the Venetian Giulio Sanuto, who faithfully reproduced the homonymous work by Bronzino (1503-1572), currently preserved in the Hermitage; compared to the original, the engraving added the group of Muses and modified the landscape background by introducing views of the villages. The work is divided into four scenes, which must be read from right to left. The first scene depicts the musical contest between Apollo and the Silenus Marsyas, who played the flute so well that he was considered superior to the same god; the two contenders are performing, the god with the lyre and the silenus with the flute even upside down (to increase the difficulty of the undertaking), in front of King Midas and the goddess Minerva, recognizable by her attributes, the helmet, the spear and the shield. In the second scene Apollo is intent on skinning Marsyas, to punish him for having won the musical contest; lean on the ground next to him, his cloak and lyre. In the third scene, it is King Midas who is punished by the god for having preferred Marsyas to him: Apollo is putting the donkey's ears on Midas, while Minerva is watching. Finally, the fourth scene, in the foreground on the left, is characterized by a particular figure, identified in the faithful servant and barber of the king: since Midas had ordered him to keep the secret on his donkey ears, not being able to let off steam otherwise, he dug a hole in the ground and yelled into there his secret; in that place, however, legend has it that a bush of reeds grew that with the wind whispered "King midas has donkey ears", thus revealing the dreaded secret. The painting has been previously restored and relined, but currently needs any further color recovery. On the back in pencil there is an old attribution to the Ferrara school ("Ercole da Ferrara"). It is presented in a late 19th century style frame.

Oil on canvas. Northern Italian school of the 17th-18th century. In a large, rather barren hilly landscape, which widens and fades to the right, there is a high rock, shaped like an arch, under which there is Saint Jerome penitent, depicted in the act of prayer and adoration of the Cross. In accordance with the canons of 17th-18th century painting, the figure of the Saint, adapted to the iconography in his clothes and attitude, is however inserted in an unsuitable landscape, close to that of the painter who drew on the landscape reality known to him. . The painting, restored and relined, is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. In a Nordic landscape, with mountain ranges in the background and green hills, a small herd of cows is placed in the foreground, watched by a shepherdess who, sitting to rest on the edge of the road, indicates to the dog at her side the small castle, the probable destination of their journey. The painting, relined, presents small but widespread losses of color and scratches. It is presented in an early 1900s frame.

Oil on canvas. Roman school of the 17th century. The bloody episode of the sacrifice of Iphigenia, also told in the Iliad, originates from the wrath of Artemis, goddess of the hunt, who, offended by Agamemnon for his boasting as a hunter, prevents the Greek fleet from sailing towards Troy; the soothsayer Calchas then prophesies that the wrath of the goddess can only be appeased by sacrificing the youngest daughter of King Agamemnon himself, Iphigenia, and so it happens. In the centre of the scene the girl is depicted prostrate at the foot of the sacrificial altar, while she is being prepared by the priests according to the rituals; in the left corner we can glimpse her father Agamemnon (with the crown abandoned at his feet) with her mother Clytemnestra who, in despair, do not dare to look. Above, the goddess Artemis watches the scene, recognizable by the moon on her hair, the bow she holds in her hand and a deer, her symbolic animal, at the foot of the canopy: according to a less violent version of the myth, at the moment of the sacrifice Iphigenia is replaced by Artemis with a doe, as the presence of the animal in this representation might indicate. The work presented here derives from the painting by Pietro Testa, published between 1640 and 1642 (now at the Galleria Spada in Rome) and from his engravings: the entire composition of the figures is taken from it, although modified in the clothes, colors and various details. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in an early 20th-century frame, contemporary with the restoration.

Oil on canvas. The large scene, set in a hilly countryside, with a village and ruins in the background on the left, is completely occupied by the compact group of numerous living figures: the shepherd's family is seated in the center, watching his companion who is holding the swaddled baby in her arms; all around, the animals, from the faithful sheepdog to the animals of the flock, sheep, goats and cows, also resting. The great naturalism of the animal figures stands out, which harks back in pictorial style to the works of the school of Philipp Peter Roos, known as Rosa da Tivoli (1657-1706), the German painter considered one of the best animal painters active in Italy in the 17th century, characterized by the peculiar ability to evoke the fleece and the looks of the animals. The work, restored and relined, is presented in a gilded frame in style.

Oil on canvas. Lombard school of the 17th century. On the first canvas and mounted on the original frame. Set in a prison, the scene shows Saint Ambrose the bishop directing the person on his right, a soldier with a cross around his neck, towards the sky. He can be identified as Saint Victor, a Roman soldier originally from Mauritania, who served in Milan at the time of Maximian and was martyred for his Christian faith. It was the bishop of Milan who recounted the life and martyrdom of the saint in one of his writings and who spread his cult. On the left, another probable martyr of the faith, who witnesses the proclamation of the beatitude of his cellmate; around, numerous other figures of condemned men. The octagonal painting probably belongs to a series dedicated to the cult of the Holy Bishop of Milan. The canvas requires restoration and cleaning, presenting several stains and cuts (a tear in the centre, other smaller ones on the sides).