ANCIENT PAINTING
 

Oil painting on canvas. Italian school of the 18th century. The painting depicts the death of Saint Joseph which, according to the apocryphal gospels, occurred assisted by Mary and Jesus: the dying man lies in fact in his bed of agony, supported affectionately by his putative son Jesus and his wife Mary, while several angels assist, both at the foot of the bed, or from above where the heavens already open to welcome the soul of the saint. Joseph's is considered the most desirable and peaceful form of death, of old age, in one's bed and surrounded by one's loved ones, and for this reason the Saint is considered the patron saint of the dying and of sweet death. Restored and relined, the painting is presented with a frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Italian school of the 17th century. The Saint is depicted inside his study, intent on reading and studying the sacred texts, but in penitential garb, i.e. clad only in a red cloth draped around his naked body. The painting, relined, has a significant crack; It is placed in a contemporary gilded wooden frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Central Italian school of the 17th century. In its pictorial style, the painting recalls the production of Angelo Caroselli (1585-1652), a Roman Baroque artist who was a painter, copyist, restorer, but also a pasticheur and connoisseur of art, i.e. creator of paintings "in the manner of"- in “technique” and in the “style” of a specific artistic period or of a specific author, even assembling “parts” taken from different paintings. Initially Caravaggesque, Il Caroselli later developed his own personal artistic language, which was copied by many minor artists. In this work the fixed and almost exasperated expressiveness of the character stands out, whose elegance of the seventeenth-century dress and the almost feminine features of the face with its rosy complexion contrast with the crudeness of Goliath's head, bloody, with the large stab wound that stands out against the mortal pallor. The painting has been restored and relined, retaining the original wooden frame. It is presented in a contemporary wooden frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Italian school of the 17th century. At the center of the scene is Christ, kneeling in the water of the Jordan, with his arms gathered towards his body in an introspective attitude; next to him John the Baptist is pouring the water of Baptism on his head. On the left three angels assist, holding the cloth ready to dry the body of Christ, but their gaze is pointed upwards, to contemplate the descent of the Holy Spirit. A landscape rich in vegetation forms the backdrop to the scene. On the first canvas, the painting has some patches on the back. The crack is marked and there are some very small holes. The painting is presented in a 19th century gilded frame (left missing).

Oil painting on canvas. Italian school of the 17th-18th centuries. A large composition of colorful flowers, in embossed metal vases, and some fruits scattered on the ground, are placed close to a wall overlooking a maritime landscape: the brightness of the sky and sea on the right contrasts with the shaded area on the left, on which the colors of the flowers stand out. The painting, relined and restored, has a significant crack. It is presented in a contemporary lacquered and gilded frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Italian school of the early 17th century. The Madonna on the throne, crowned by two angels, has the Baby Jesus in her arms, who offers Saint Francis the poor knotted belt, a symbol of poverty; witnessing the scene are a holy bishop, Saint John the Baptist and two female saints, Saint Clare on the left, Saint Catherine of Alexandria on the right. The painting, still on the first canvas, has a clearly visible crack with small drops of color; subjected to restoration (there are old patches on the back), it was fixed to a non-coeval wooden frame and mounted in a coeval Florentine frame, in black painted wood with gold decorations.

The Months of the Year

Watercolor etchings. Series of twelve loose sheets etched and colored by hand, with caption and name of the relevant month at the bottom, depicting typical scenes linked to each month of the year. Made based on drawings by Giuseppe Zocchi (1711 -1767), the engravings by Giovanni Battista Cecchi (1748 -1819) were printed between 1750 and 1799 by the Florentine publishers Giacomo Moro and Giuseppe Bardi. The series is in good condition, with small moisture stains and minor defects. The engravings are presented in style frames.

Oil painting on canvas. Italian school of the 18th century. portrait of a noblewoman in rich evening dress, with an ermine cloak draped over her shoulders, indicating her high lineage. Relined, the painting is presented in an antique gilded frame.

Oil painting on canvas. The identification of the saint is given by the presence of the large wooden wheel, symbol of the instrument of her martyrdom. Usually the saint is represented with a crown on her head and dressed in royal clothes to underline her princely origins. Instead here we have an atypical depiction of her, with her hair loose, covered only by a large red cloak (the color of blood, therefore of mortal humanity) which falls from her shoulders and forces her to cover her breasts with her hands; her gaze is turned upwards, where the heavens open and an angel descends, holding the palm of martyrdom with one hand and placing a crown of flowers on her head with the other, symbol of her mystical marriage with Christ . It is therefore a representation that sees her at the moment of passage to eternal life, similar to a penitent Magdalene in mystical adoration, who offers herself to Christ without any human recognition. The chromatic choices stand out in the painting, which against a dark and gloomy background bring out the red of the open sky and of the mantle, and the whiteness of the flesh, both of the woman and of the angel. The canvas, already restored and relined, is presented in a worked frame from the late 19th century, with some defects.

Oil painting on canvas. Northern European school of the 18th century. The allegorical scene presents a scantily clad woman sitting on a man's lap, near a table set with a jug, a chalice, a snuffbox and a lit cigar. The two characters are in an attitude of playful complicity, both intent on smoking a long pipe. The background offers a leafy landscape. The figures and objects refer to the material and carnal pleasures of life, smoking, drinking, female company; the rosy and plump characters also recall the pleasure of good food. These subjects were recurrent in Flemish or more generally Nordic painting, which proposed them in an ironic and alluring way. The painting, restored and relined, is presented in a period frame.

Oil painting on canvas. The scene takes place near a military camp: outside a tent on the left an army leader, probably Greek, is receiving offerings from a group of men, poor and ragged, who prostrate themselves before the new master; the first is holding out some loaves of bread, another is taking something out of a sack, the third is showing the wounds on his body to ask for mercy; behind them other figures of beggars are approaching, forming a scattered line on the path fading into the distance on the right. In the background on the left, life in the military camp is bustling. The painting has been restored and relined.

Oil painting on canvas. Northern Italian school of the 18th century. According to the taste of the 18th century, the proposed landscape is dominated by the remains of an ancient temple, vestiges of past glories. All around there is a countryside with a stream, but fading in the distance towards the blue peaks of a mountain range. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Northern Italian school of the 17th-18th centuries. The scene shows the clash between knights outside the walls of a besieged city, with the smoke of firearms invading the sky. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in an adapted antique frame. The scene shows the clash between knights outside the walls of a besieged city, with the smoke of firearms invading the sky. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in an adapted antique frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Spanish school of the late 18th century. The biblical episode narrated in the book of Exodus is told in which little Moses, to escape the massacre of the children of Israel ordered by Pharaoh, is left by his mother in a basket on the banks of the Nile, where Pharaoh's daughter went to bathe . Having found him, she decided to save him and then raised him as a son at her court. The episode has been widely used as a pictorial subject, due to the suggestion of the theme: the scene full of characters sees in the center the princess daughter of the Pharaoh of Egypt, surrounded by all her entourage, who looks and welcomes with the gesture of the hand tense little Moses, who takes it from the basket on the left, leans hungrily towards the breast of the woman behind him, the nurse ready to breastfeed him. The scene is placed in a Nordic landscape contemporary with the painting, just as the figures wear 18th century clothes, except for the princess who sports an oriental-style headdress with a diadem. Her figure stands out for the bright color of the dress, just as the rosy complexion of the naked child stands out, which imposes itself on the duller and darker colors of the women in the entourage. The painting has been restored and relined.

Etching. At the bottom left, within a cartouche, title and legend of the places with 14 numbered references; bottom right, the words "Amstelodami Exc. Ioannes Blaeu". This is the map of Racconigi, the city in the province of Cuneo, known for its castle, residence of the Savoy royal family. It is taken from the second edition of the "Theatrum Sabaudiae", the work created by Ioannes Blaeu in the first edition in 1682 for the Duchy of Savoy, as a political manifesto aimed at all the other European courts as testimony and exaltation of the greatness of the sovereign. The work is presented in a frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Northern Italian school of the 17th century. The large painting presents as its subject a well-known Old Testament theme, the wealth of King Solomon, told in the First Book of Kings: "King Solomon surpassed, therefore, in wealth and wisdom, all the kings of the earth. In every part of the earth to approach Solomon to listen to the wisdom that God had placed in his heart. Everyone brought him, every year, offerings of silver and gold objects, clothes, weapons, spices, horses and mules". In the painting the king, richly dressed with the symbols of royalty (the crown, the scepter, the ermine cloak), listens standing to the postulants who come to him to receive the advice dictated by his proverbial wisdom, and in exchange they bring him offerings, which are commensurate with their social role: some farmers bring gifts of bags of grain, the fruits of their work in the fields, another raises a cup high, to attract the king's attention. The colors and pictorial style of the painting refer to the production of northern Italy, especially Venetian. The painting has been restored and relined.

Oil painting on canvas. The landscape, set in the mountains but with a view of the sea in the background, sees a figure of a commoner in the center and two on the sides, walking on the paths; some farmhouses are scattered on the green slopes. The painting presents several drops of color, especially the upper margin. It is presented in a stylish frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Neapolitan school of the 17th-18th century. It is a traditional scene of the deposition of Christ from the Cross, with the inert and pale body lowered into the arms of his mother Mary, in turn embraced and supported in her pain by the disciple John, and around, sharing in the mourning, two pious women and two disciples. The scene is characterized by a diagonally descending linearity, which follows the body of Jesus, starting from the pole of the Cross raised on the left and ending with the woman crouched to embrace Jesus' feet on the right. All around, a bare and gray background, which underlines the drama and emptiness that it creates. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in an early 20th century frame.