ANCIENT PAINTING
 

Martyrdom of the Franciscans in Nagasaki

Oil painting on canvas. The work is a faithful copy of the homonymous masterpiece by Tanzio da Varallo (1580-82 /1633), created by the painter from Valsesia for the Franciscan convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Varallo, and currently preserved at the Pinacoteca di Brera. The painting depicts the martyrdom which occurred in 1597 in Nagasaki of twenty-three Franciscan friars, who were subsequently beatified in 1627, a date which allows us to place the work in the last years of the artist's activity. Tanzio da Varallo was probably inspired for its creation by the text "Life and exploits of the Martyrs of Japan" by the Spanish Franciscan Marcello di Ribadeneira; of the Brera painting we know a partial preparatory drawing (preserved in the Pinacoteca di Varallo), a sanguine drawing published by Testori (1964) and a canvas (from a private collection in Borgosesia) published by Ferro. The replica proposed here is faithful to the original, even in size, only a few centimeters lower in height, probably lost during the re-lining of the work. Although it is a copy of notable quality, where in particular the richness of highlights stands out which stand out on the warmer and darker tones of the flesh tones, compared to the original one notices a lower fineness of execution, a tendency towards simplification and a pathetic accentuation, which they testify to the hand of a copyist concerned with reproducing the model in every detail, without granting himself any license. Furthermore, this copyist seems to have been very familiar with Tanzio's style, to the point of even perfectly imitating his hooked hands. One can therefore think of a pupil of Tanzio or of his workshop (which was continued by his brother Melchiorre upon Tanzio's death), or of an artist who saw and appreciated his works, such as for example Pietro Francesco Gianoli, who worked above all in churches in Valsesia and in the Novara area and of which other replicas of works by Tanzio da Varallo are known, such as David with the head of Goliath. Furthermore, since the work presented here, before being acquired by a private collector, remained located for centuries in a Franciscan convent in Lombardy, it is plausible that it is a copy of that of Tanzio commissioned by the Order itself, for another monastery, by a painter who was stylistically close to Tanzio and could look to the original. The painting has been relined and restored. It is presented in a late 19th-early 20th century setting.

Flemish School, XVI Century

Oil on wooden board. Flemish school of the 16th century. The work has a plaque at the base attributing it to Lambert Van Noort (1520 -1571), justified by the closeness to his pictorial methods which can be found in the faces of Jesus and Magdalene, but not confirmable for the other parts of the painting. The work recounts the episode from the Gospel of John in which the scribes and Pharisees brought a woman accused of adultery to Jesus, to test her observance of the law of Moses, which included stoning. But Jesus, bending down to the ground, began to write with his finger in the dust, then when urged, he pronounced the words "Let anyone among you who is without sin cast the first stone", saving the woman and subsequently forgiving her. The large stage is filled with a large and tight group of characters. Jesus in the centre, is the only figure bent on the ground, estranged from the rest of the group and fixed in his gesture of writing with one finger; standing behind him, with a precise vertical alignment of her face with that of Christ, is the accused woman, who covers her body with her cloak observing Jesus' gesture, while awaiting the sentence; all around the scribes, the Pharisees, some soldiers, who instead speak animatedly among themselves, are agitated, confronting each other, indicating what Jesus is doing. The subject was widely represented in Flemish painting, with different interpretative methods. If in this painting the Flemish school is clearly perceived in the faces with hard features and in the rather rigid bodies in the movements of the scribes and Pharisees, as well as in the representation of the building in the background and in the meticulous representation of the shoes in the right foreground, the two The figures of Jesus and the woman are instead affected by the Italian influence, which softened the features of the faces, gave the movements of the body greater composure and gracefulness, and with the help of a brighter color made them stand out among the other figures. The panel of the painting was subjected to restoration and relined in the first half of the 20th century. The painting is presented in an adapted antique frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Emilian school of the 18th century. Large portrait of a 17th century nobleman, dressed in an elegant cloak edged with spotted fur and with the white wig typical of 17th and 18th century fashion, identifying a high lineage. The gentleman is holding a sheet of paper on which a church surrounded by other buildings is drawn, perhaps a convent, or in any case a village of which the nobleman was probably a benefactor. The painting has been restored and relined. It is presented in a contemporary gilded frame. The previous owners indicated that it came from an elegant building in Parma.

Oil on wooden board. Central Italian school of the second half of the 16th century. The sacred scene of the Annunciation sees the two protagonist figures placed in the foreground in an interior that corresponds to Mary's room. The young woman is sitting in front of a small wooden desk, supported by figures of angels, on which rests the prayer book and a vase with small flowers; at her feet, the sewing basket. Mary's body is partially turned backwards, in a twisted movement, almost as if she were trying to escape, as if she wanted to get away from the other figure, that of the Archangel Gabriel. He stands on the right, majestic and elegant, with one hand holding a lily and the other pointing upwards above him, where the white dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit, is emerging from a gap of light. In the background, tall columns with drapes surmount the platform on which Mary's bed rests. The composition refers, in the figurative style and in the chromatic choices, to the already mannerist painting of the schools of central Italy: in particular there is a strong concordance of style and composition with some works of the same subject by the painter Bastiano Vini Detto Bastiano Veronese (1525-1530 / 1602), who lived and worked in Pistoia from around 1540. It is in this city that some of his Annunciations are found: in particular the one in the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie (an altarpiece measuring over two meters in height), shows clear similarities on a formal and compositional level with the one presented here . There is concordance in the setting of the sacred scene: a room, in the background of which is a curtain that partially covers a bed, furnished with the elements essential to the narrative, the lectern and the chair richly decorated with caryatids of cherubs or angels that seem to be carved in the wood. The compositional scheme corresponds, albeit with slight variations, with the two figures arranged "frieze-like" on the same laying plane, and the somatic features of the Virgin and the Archangel also correspond. However, the floor differs, which, while it is homogeneous in our table, in the Pistoia one presents itself with alternating checkerboard colors, but it seems that this design of the floor was added in a later period, on the occasion of the reconstruction of the altar in 1637 -1639, in pendant with that of another work by the same Sebastiano Vini in the same church, a Sacred Conversation. It therefore seems rather certain that our panel was painted looking at the work of Bastiano Veronese, probably at the specific request of the client, and before the change in the floor, therefore dating back to the second half of the 16th century. The painting has undergone restoration, with the application of two reinforcements to the back of the panel. It is presented in a late 19th century setting. (Reference for the Pistoia altarpiece: Catalog of cultural heritage https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/detail/HistoricOrArtisticProperty/0900035285)

Oil on canvas. Neapolitan school of the eighteenth century. The scene, located near the sea, is dominated by a large complex of architectural ruins, with statues, arches, hanging gardens, and animated by numerous figurines of commoners intent on various activities. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in an antique frame.

The denial of Peter

Oil on oak board, coming from an important historical Florentine collection. The collection started by an ancestor of the family who was in Vienna in 1798 and then in Wurzburg until 1813, as a companion of exile of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinand III. The collection was transferred to Florence after the fall of Napoleon, and its importance is proved by a copy of an inventory compiled in 1881. At number 14 of it (corresponding to the one shown on the cartouche at the back of the table), the compiler's description:...a two feet and four and a half inches long wooden footboard, and one foot and eight and a half-inch high, representing Peter who denies Jesus Christ to the maiden in Anna's house. We see the Savior from far away carried to that pontiff to be examined, in the midst of a crowd and a quantity of soldiers. In the 1960s, an initial attribution to Bruegel was denied and relocated to Francken. The composition was obviously successful because other versions of the workshop were known (see for example, an oil on copper with identical subject and dimensions in the Koller auction on 18/09/2015). Presented in a refurbished frame.

Tempera on paper, applied to hardboard. The biblical episode depicted, described in the book of Exodus, tells how young Moses, still at the court of the Pharaoh of Egypt, defends the seven young daughters of the priest Jethro, harassed by some Midianite shepherds while they draw water from the well. After his intervention, Moses will receive in marriage one of Jethro's daughters, Zipporah. This subject is very popular in art history, it is presented here with a particular attention to the portrait component, with a particular exacerbation of the expressive traits, both in the faces and the poses of the characters. The scene is very lively, with the figure of Moses in the centre, vigorous and combative, who divides the field in two: on his left the seven girls, each characterized by a different behaviour; on the right the importuning shepherds, who suffer the wrath of Moses. In the background, a landscape typical of 18th century productions, with an architectural ruin behind the well. The work is presented in a frame in style.

Oil on canvas. Intense and high quality, the painting depicts a monarch of the royal house of Scotland. Around the portrait, in a painted oval frame, there are some writings: the name Rober(t) appears at the top left, the title Rex at the bottom left and the abbreviation Scot, which stands for Scotorum, on the right; the writing at the top right is not identifiable, but it seems to be an acronym. The man portrayed wears a hat and a coat adorned with ermine fur, which is considered the noblest fur, reserved for royalty. He wears a golden pendant around his neck, which depicts two leaves with the fruit of the thistle, which, in heraldry, symbolizes Scotland. The writing and the pendant therefore refer to a Robert of Scotland, probably from the dynasty that reigned in the fourteenth century. The portrait was however executed in the romantic nineteenth-century period, probably using some ancient engravings for inspiration. Restored and relined, it is presented in a frame in style.

Oil on canvas. Northern Italy school. The depiction of the Nativity is seen here as a contemplative moment of the Holy Child, by Mary and Joseph, accompanied by little angels. The pictorial ways resume those of widely replicated models, starting from Correggio, from Barocci, to arrive at the numerous versions of Gherardo delle notte, or the Flemish painter Gerard Von Honthorst, representative of tenebrism, a pictorial current that played on strong contrasts of darkness and light, light and dark. In this work too, the light radiated by the Baby Jesus illuminates the figures around him and makes them emerge from the surrounding darkness. The restored and relined work is presented in a 19th century frame.

Oil on canvas. In the large scene set outside, the laboratory of a blacksmith stands out on the left side, who is intent to work on horseshoes with his helpers while the owner of the horse attends; in the centre, other knights arrive with their servants who are headed to the craftsman; on the right some popular figures are resting on the roadside. In the background, a large river landscape opens up on the right, while on the left there is the access to the village, dominated by a dilapidated building, with various popular figures intent on their activities: the woman who is about to breastfeed a child, while the other son runs away up the staircase, another woman hanging the clothes on the balcony of the house built on stilts on the rock, while a man climbs the ladder. It probably is a piece by a Flemish author working in Lombardy. Some references to clothing and construction certainly indicate the Northern European contamination, while other details indicate it was realized in a Lombard location. The painting comes from a prestigious historical residence of a Lombard noble family Still on the first canvas, it has some cuts and a hole in the lower band; some patches on the back from an old restoration. It is presented in a thin coeval frame.

Oil on canvas. The large scene is set at the entrance of a village near a stop for horses: numerous horsemen are standing with their animals, which are looked after by the servants and the peasants who fill the manger with hay; one of the servants, on the right, lets the animals drink in the nearby stream. In the background, the houses of the village arranged along the river, which then flows into the hilly landscape on the right. It probably is a piece by a Flemish author working in Lombardy. Some references to clothing and construction certainly indicate the Northern European contamination, while other details indicate it was realized in a Lombard location. The painting comes from a prestigious historical residence of a Lombard noble family Still on the first canvas, it has some cuts in the lower band. It is presented in a thin coeval frame.

Winter Landscape with Figures on Ice

Oil painting on canvas. Flemish school of the XVII-XVIII century. On the frame there is a label attributing to Thomas Heeremans (but with incorrect date). The large scene offers a winter landscape appropriate to the Dutch territory, as it is characterized by a frozen canal, near a village, populated by numerous figures of skaters, intent on daily activities: the horse-drawn sleigh for transporting people, the the man who pushes the "wheelbarrow" full of wood, the child who pushes himself into his little box; other figures pass by on the embankment along the canal. The gray and cold sky of a winter day hangs over everything. The subject was the recurring one in the production of the Dutch painter Thomas Heeremans, who mainly painted winter landscapes of his land, replicating them several times due to the success obtained, and inducing numerous other artists to imitate him; it is therefore thought that this work can be traced back to an imitator of the Heeremans, rather than to him directly. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period 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 painting on canvas. Lombard area of the late 18th century. The four canvases show scenes from Orlando Furioso, the famous epic poem written by Ludovico Ariosto and published for the first time in 1516. On the frame, on the back, there are handwritten writings in ancient Italian, which say the title of the scene and they give the reference of the song and the verse. All four scenes represent episodes taken from the first two songs of the poem and appear to be sequential. The attributive titles are as follows: 1- “This painting represents that Paladin galiardo (Rinaldo) son of Amone sig. di Monte Albano, which describes Ariosto in canto 1 to verse 12 ”: depicts the moment in which Rinaldo, on foot of his horse Baiardo, sees Angelica escaped from the camp of Namo di Baviera in the wood. 2- "This painting represents Angelica and Ferraù when she comes to their aid, which Ariosto describes in canto 1 verse 14": Angelica fleeing from Rinaldo, meets in the woods Ferraù, a noble Saracen knight who is also in love with the girl, who helps to escape by opposing the Christian knight. 3- “This painting represents Rinaldo and Sacripante who fall down, Angelica runs away from their fury. Ariosto describes it in Canto 2 verse 10 ": Rinaldo and Sacripante fight to compete for the love of Angelica, who in the meantime runs away. 4- “This painting represents Rinaldo and Sacripante in the act they fell for Angelica and were stopped by a spirit in the form of a Valletto. Ariosto describes it in canto 2 verse 15 ": while the two knights fight, Angelica meets a hermit, who, with a spell, evokes a spirit with the appearance of a footman, who interrupts the duel between the two contenders. The paintings therefore belong to a single pictorial cycle, attributable to the end of the eighteenth century and which, in accordance with the neoclassical taste, represents the characters in classical clothes - warriors dressed as ancient soldiers, Angelica dressed in a Roman tunic, shoes and bracelet - , but inserted in a landscape of Northern Italy, a shady and dense forest. The Orlando Furioso had the peculiarity of proposing the warlike theme associated with the love one (in particular the love story between Angelica and Medoro was preferred, which became the subject of numerous works by artists of all centuries) and obtained great popularity and success: His representations were numerous in all ranges of visual pictorial art, in stately frescoes, paintings, ceramics, even apothecary jars, cups, medals, pendulums, candelabra. It began in the Emilian land, the homeland of the poem created by Ariosto for Cardinal Ludovico D'Este, to arrive at the Medici courts, in Lombardy, where subsequently Ariosto's pictorial cycles were carried out in numerous palaces and stately homes. The canvases are presented in gilded style frames.

Landscape with Architecture and Figures

Oil on canvas. The large landscape is dominated by an imposing architectural structure with columns overlooking the sea, which occupies the entire central part of the canvas, while a fortress is outlined on the right. The scene is then animated by numerous figures of commoners intent on daily activities: in the foreground on the left, on the quay, a group of men awaits the load of numerous crates and trunks. The monogram D.G. This abbreviation, together with the baroque stylistic modality, refers to the attribution to Domenico Gargiulo, stage name of the Neapolitan painter Micco Spadaro (1609/1612 - 1675). Active mainly in Naples, especially in the two decades between the mid-seventeenth century, the Gargiulo established itself mainly as a landscape painter and above all for having documented the tumultuous events of Naples in the seventeenth century (eruptions, epidemics, the revolt of Masaniello). The progressive specialization in the representation of landscapes or city scenes, crowded with figurines presented with minute descriptions and with attention to popular social reality, meant that his commission was mainly of a private nature, receiving commissions from numerous Neapolitan notables, regents, knights and finding his works in all the most important Neapolitan collections of the time. Among its major clients there was also the great Flemish collector Gaspare Roomer, to whom the Gargiulo owed its fortune. Gargiulo often inserted his abbreviations in his works, but rarely dated them; it was possible to establish the dating of his production only thanks to the realization of a series of works for the monks of the Certosa di S. Martino, which took place between 1638 and 1646, among the few religious works he made but the only ones in be documented with some accuracy. The large canvas proposed here is presented in a stylish frame.

"L'arc en ciel" XVII Century

Oil painting on canvas. Northern European school of the seventeenth century. The large pastoral scene presents a broad landscape that pushes the gaze to the distant sea coast; on it the sky is gradually opening up, revealing flashes of blue on the left, while on the right, among the darker clouds left over from the storm, a large rainbow is revealed. In the foreground, a group of shepherds and shepherdesses enjoy amorous games, discrete and festive, in the midst of their herds, which rest and drink from the nearby stream. The whole scene is animated by a dimension of joyful relaxation and refreshment, as if the rainbow had restored serenity to the environment, bringing light and with it serenity to the world. The attribution to Jordaens is linked both to the typology of subject, the pastoral one, a recurring theme in the production of the Flemish artist, and to the pictorial modalities: in this work we find his warm and luminous colours, the strong contrasts of light and shadow, the robust figures with red and healthy faces, sometimes with satyristic features, the compositions full of figures that give an air of sensual vitality. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period gilded frame.

Oil on canvas. Flemish school of the seventeenth century. Already attributed to Jan Peeters (1624 -1677), the painting falls fully within the style and genre of the author who, working in his father's workshop and then in his brother Bonaventura's, specialized in marines, above all in the "Fortune di mare" i.e. the accidents due to the sea, and to any other event caused at sea by fortuitous events or insurmountable obstacles, which therefore in painting become representations of storms with ships and crews at the mercy of events. This is exactly what the painting proposed here is about: some ships, full of men, are at the mercy of the high waves of a night storm, near the coast which, with its protruding rocks, has already caused the shipwreck of some small boats. One perceives the struggle of men, small and defenseless, against the forces of nature, dominant, violent, gloomy and hostile, which dominates and attacks the boats both from the sea and from the sky, dark and black. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Tuscan school of the seventeenth century. Scion of an ancient Longobard lineage of Aquino (in the province of Frosinone), Thomas (born around 1226) went to Naples to study, in 1243 he entered the order of Dominican preachers against the wishes of his relatives, but during the journey to the northerner was arrested by his brothers and held prisoner for about a year. In the scene, the young saint in the centre, already dressed in the Dominican habit, is surrounded on both sides by four richly dressed figures, precisely his relatives, probably including his mother, who hold him kindly, almost embracing him, while with gestures of the hands and the afflicted and loving looks try to convince him, almost begging him. The figures are also placed in a prison, as indicated by the bars in the window on the right, to underline the coercive action performed. Rich and detailed are the details of the clothes of the characters, with bright colors that contrast with Thomas' dress, plastic movements properly in Baroque taste. Already restored and relined, the painting is in good condition, with evident cracking. It is presented in an antique re-lacquered and re-gilded frame.

Love and Psyche

Oil painting on canvas. Northern Italian school of the 17th century. The scene refers, with some variations but very close in size, to a part of the large fresco entitled "Banchetto degli dei" in the Chamber of Cupid (or Chamber of Cupid and Psyche) of Palazzo Té in Mantua, a large representation of over nine meters made by Giulio Romano with his workshop in the 16th century. The proposed scene (which in Mantua is located to the right of the great banquet) sees Cupid and Psyche lying on a triclinium, while a small winged figure crowns them with laurel and two nymphs wash Cupid's hand; in the background on the right a group of satyrs is sacrificing a goat to the altar of a deity, while in the centre, in the distance, a city is burning. The banquet of the gods is the final moment of the myth of the two lovers who, after many trials and vicissitudes, obtain Venus'permission to get married. The work, restored and relined, is presented in an antique frame.

Still life with holes, fruit, a parrot and quail

Oil painting on canvas. Neapolitan school of the seventeenth-eighteenth century. The large composition is rich in numerous different elements: in the center stands a large floral composition, of multiple varieties in bright colors; on the left of the flowers, resting on a Doric capital, there is a budgie with bright colors contrasting with the dull ones of the dead quail lying on the floor below, together with some pumpkins and a pewter vase. The painting, restored and relined, is presented in a period frame. It comes from an important collection (Commendatore Arturo Stucchi, an entrepreneur from Como, is mentioned on the back).