Giuseppe Ferrata Oil on Plywood 20th Century

Lierna's Small Port, 1942

Oil on plywood. Signed on the lower right corner. Expositive label on the frame with informations about the author and the painting that reports the date of exhibition at the Enduring Exposition in 1942. The artist was born in Rovato (BS) but lived and worked mostly in Milan: Started as engravor and at the age of forty decided to paint landscapes depicting mainly the lombard countryside and the typical milanese places. In the painting portraits a locality of Como Lake. Framed.

'Clelia crosses the Tiber' Domenico Lupini attributed to

The painting represents Clelia crossing the Tiber. Clelia was a Roman heroine, who was given as a hostage, together with other girls, to the Etruscan king Porsenna during the peace negotiations with the city; he managed to escape, however, by swimming across the Tiber. Porsenna asked the Romans to return it, who agreed, but admired by her heroism, he decided to free her by allowing her to take other prisoners with her, whom Clelia chose from among the youngest. The moment of the representation is precisely that of the crossing of the river, of which there is the personification in the foreground on the right, with an elderly gray-haired man, accompanied by a young woman with a cornucopia. The scene is very dynamic, with Clelia and the other girls who create a large and lively group, together with the horse ridden by the protagonist, as some versions of the story recall; behind them the tents of the Etruscan king's camp with some soldiers. On the other side of the river there is another group of women, the crossing already completed, while in the background you can see the expanse with the Capitoline city with a classic face. The work, as evidenced by a small scroll, is attributed to Domenico Lupini, an artist about whom not much is known but whose scope of activity between Bergamo and Venice can be hypothesized. The only two signed works are a "converted Magdalene" and an "Annunciation", but other works have been attributed to him by the scholar Federica Nurchis and placed in the monastery of Santa Chiara in Bergamo. These paintings present a warm and refined chromatism which, together with the elegance of the characters and the compositional modality, suggest a Venetian stay by Lucini, which seems to recall the atmospheres of Tintoretto, Veronese and Palma il Giovane. Presented in a 17th century gilded frame, restored and relined.

Still Life with Flowers and Glass Vase

Oil painting on canvas. Lombard school of the nineteenth century. The vase composition presents a bunch of variegated flowers in delicate pastel colors, flanked by a thin and elegant blue glass vase containing a single iris; the vases rest on an elegant wooden console with mirror that frames the composition. The unsigned work is very close to the manner of Luigi Scrosati (1814-1869), the Milanese painter who distinguished himself for the depictions of floral still lifes. The painting is presented in a beautiful coeval gilded frame, in wood and tablet modeled with friezes.

Still Life with Flowers Potted Plant and Capital

Oil painting on canvas. Lombard school of the nineteenth century. The composition offers a bouquet of colorful flowers that emerge from a straw hat placed on the ground, while, resting on a capital, a cascade of green branches with red flowers emerges from another vase. In the background, a barren landscape, with mountains in the distance, while the blue sky is invaded by gray clouds. The unsigned work is very close to the manner of Luigi Scrosati (1814-1869), the Milanese painter who distinguished himself for the depictions of floral still lifes. The painting is presented in a beautiful coeval gilded frame, in wood and tablet modeled with friezes.

Portrait of Musician

Oil painting on canvas. Italian school. The man is portrayed while he is writing music on the score placed on the table. At the top left the writing identifies the character: it is Giovanni Francesco Sillani, qualified as "very expert in the art of music". The Sillani or Silani family, originally from Urgnano in the province of Bergamo, was a lineage of organists and composers who held positions in various Bergamo choirs, from the end of the seventeenth century to the first decades of the nineteenth century. The painting, restored and relined, is presented in a relacquered contemporary frame.

Male Portrait

Oil painting on canvas. Intense portrait of an elderly people in party clothes, intent on smoking a cigar. Unsigned, the painting is also of good hand and of significant expressiveness. It is presented in a contemporary gilded frame.

Genre Scene Oil on Canvas - Italy XIX Century

Oil on canvas. The nice scene is set outside the gate of a garden (a park?) Surrounded by a high crumbling wall: a girl plays on the ground, surrounded by scratching hens. On the back there is a label with an old attribution to Achille Formis Befani (1830-1906), a Neapolitan artist who then worked in Milan, conforming to the Lombard school; he dealt with both landscape and figure painting. The painting is presented in a coeval gilt frame.

The Andes Pass between Chile and Argentina

Charles Ferdinand Ceramano

Pastoral scene

Oil painting on canvas. Signed lower right. A young shepherdess leads her flock of sheep to the entrance of a wood, in a green hilly countryside. On the frame, a label shows in addition to the name of the painter, also a more specific title "Moutons dans la forêt de Barbizon", placing the scene on the edge of the forest of Fontainebleau, near the charming village of Barbizon, which became famous thanks to the painters 19th century French landscape painters (Rousseau, Millet, Daubigny, Corot) who even founded the Barbizon School art movement here, considered a precursor of Impressionism, which lasted from 1830 to 1875, a period during which artists came to enjoy the peace of this quiet village and the beauty of the surrounding nature. Charles Ferdinand Ceramano, pseudonym of the Belgian painter Semain, also settled in Barbizon in 1872, where he devoted himself to painting animals and landscapes, pastoral scenes with sheep and sheepfolds. Restored and relined, the painting shows slight color losses. It is presented in a late 19th century frame, with slight shortcomings.

Corneille

Lithograph 1991

Color lithograph. signed and dated lower right. Serial number 82/125 bottom left. Corneille, stage name of Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo, was a Belgian painter, sculptor and printer. Born in Belgium to Dutch parents, after taking courses at the Amsterdam School of Fine Arts, he began his painting experience influenced by surrealism. He participated in several avant-garde art movements and was co-founder of the experimental Reflex movement. While until the 1950s he developed his artistic discourse in an abstract sense, at the beginning of the 1960s, impressed by the colors of nature in southern Europe and North Africa, he returned to figure painting and shifted his interest towards expressionism. Since the late seventies his pictorial production has proposed tropical landscapes and gardens occupied by plants, animals and women, expressed with bright, very lively colors, with fairy-tale connotations, apparently childish, which in reality are evoked by a dreamlike and introspective dimension. The lithograph is presented in a frame.

Giuseppe Riva

Venice Doge's Palace

Oil on plywood. Signed lower right. Painter of vast and complex production for variety of subjects (historical scenes, landscapes, genre images, portraits, religious paintings) Giuseppe Riva was born in Bergamo, where he trained by attending the Carrara Academy school; later he lived in Rome where he refined his painting at the Academy of Fine Arts of the Capital, presenting, among other things, both oils and watercolors at the first edition of the Roman National Exhibition. He returned to his hometown in 1883, exhibiting at the Carrara Academy and obtaining more orders for religious paintings which he sometimes created together with his father, also a painter. Here is a beautiful view of his of the Doge's Palace in Venice, seen from the lagoon. The work has some retouching. It is presented in a contemporary frame.

'Judgment of Paris' Domenico Lupini attributed to

The model derives from an engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi based on a drawing by Raphael, specially made for the graphic work, deriving from a painting placed in the Stanza della Segnatura (1513-1515). This model was taken up and changed by Hans von Aachen in a canvas dated 1588 and today preserved at the Museum of the Charterhouse of Douai, in turn taken up in an engraving of the following year by Raphael Sadeler, in the Cabinet of Drawings and Prints of the 'Carrara Academy of Bergamo. The canvas in question is derived from this last version, which shows the same changes made with respect to the Raphaelesque original. At the center of the scene, which takes place immersed in a natural landscape, are the three goddesses who competed for the title of the most beautiful: Juno with the peacock, her symbolic animal, Venus accompanied by Cupid and Minerva next to which are the helmet, spear and shield. Paris, from behind, is giving the golden apple that decrees the winner to the goddess of love, under the gaze of Judge Mercury. Two cherubs flit around the protagonists, while in the foreground, always from behind, there is a male figure. A country boarding school is taking place on the back lawn. The work, as evidenced by a small scroll, is attributed to Domenico Lupini, an artist about whom not much is known but for whom it is possible to hypothesize the scope of his activity between Bergamo and Venice. The only two signed works are a "converted Magdalene" and an "Annunciation", but other works have been attributed to him by the scholar Federica Nurchis and placed in the monastery of Santa Chiara in Bergamo. These paintings present a warm and refined chromatism which, together with the elegance of the characters and the compositional modality, suggest a Venetian stay by Lucini, which seems to recall the atmospheres of Tintoretto, Veronese and Palma il Giovane. Presented in a 17th century gilded frame, restored and relined.

Archangel Michael defeats the Devil Oil on Canvas Italy XVII Century

Oil on canvas. The work is a copy of the famous painting by Guido Reni (1575-1642), made between 1635 and 1636 and currently kept inside the Church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini in Rome. The iconography of the work is based on the vision of St. John the Evangelist described in the Apocalypse in which he appeared "... an angel who came down from heaven with the key of the Abyss and a large chain in his hand [... which ...] grabbed the dragon, the ancient serpent - that is, the devil, satan - and chained him ... ". The work, in the strongly Baroque original of great intensity and strength, is here taken up with fidelity and good rendering, although the colors are less brilliant and the dimensions reduced, to the detriment of the great wings of the archangel and the background of the rocky landscape of the underworld. The work, restored and relined, is presented in a frame from the early 1900s.

Martyrdom of St. James the Minor

Oil on the table. Both the external rectangular frame and another internal frame, which inscribes the painting, are carved into the table. The scene proposes the martyrdom of Saint James of Alfeo, the apostle called the Minor, to distinguish him from the other apostle of the same name, Giacomo di Zebedeo, called the Major. According to tradition, James the younger, sentenced to death by stoning, was killed instead with a blow to the head given to him by a washerman. The painted scene proposes the characters dressed in the ancient fashion of their time, but inserted in a contemporary habitat to the painter. It is part of a group of small plates that tell the martyrdom of various saints, probably made for illustrative purposes for the common people.

Martyrdom of St. James the Greater

Oil on the table. Both the external rectangular frame and another internal frame, which inscribes the painting, are carved into the table. The scene proposes the martyrdom of St. James of Zebedee, the apostle called the Major, to distinguish him from the other apostle of the same name, Giacomo di Alfeo, called the Minor. James the Greater was the first martyr apostle, and suffered death by beheading. The painted scene proposes the martyrdom inflicted at the hands of Roman soldiers, but inserted in a contemporary habitat to the painter. It is part of a group of small plates that tell the martyrdom of various saints, probably made for illustrative purposes for the common people.

Martyrdom scene

Oil on the table. Both the external rectangular frame and another internal frame, which inscribes the painting, are carved into the table. The scene proposes the martyrdom of a saint by stoning; although the most famous saint for having been subjected to this condemnation was Stephen (but he was martyred while still young, unlike the martyr proposed here), many were the Christians who suffered this form of martyrdom, because stoning was the punishment contemplated by the Mosaic law for the crimes considered more serious, such as blasphemy. The painted scene proposes characters dressed in the ancient fashion, but is inserted in a contemporary habitat to the painter. It is part of a group of small plates that tell the martyrdom of various saints, probably made for illustrative purposes for the common people.

Holy Martyr

Oil on the table. Both the external rectangular frame and another internal frame, which inscribes the painting, are carved into the table. The scene depicts a Christian saint kneeling praying to God, refusing to participate in the sacrifice to a pagan deity that the priests are making; on the left a man points him to the Roman soldier, accusing him. The scene is a prelude to the martyrdom of man; the costumes of the characters and the pagan altar are in keeping with the historical period of the martyr, but the landscape is that of the artist. It is part of a group of small plates that tell the martyrdom of various saints, probably made for illustrative purposes for the common people.

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

Oil painting on canvas. French school of the seventeenth century. The scene is set in front of an open arch in a stone structure, which gives access to uninhabited and bare rooms. Two figures, a woman and a putto, are delighting with different instruments: she plays a mandolin and, scattered on the ground, there is a palette of colors, books, jewels, armor and weapons, other musical instruments, and a globe. on which the putto stands, producing soap bubbles; on the ground in the center, a cartouche mentions the saying "Sic transit gloria mundi". This is a famous Latin phrase, which in Italian means "Thus passes the glory of the world", used to emphasize the ephemeral value of the things of life, symbolized by various objects (arts, literature, wealth ...), destined to vanish like soap bubbles. The whole scene therefore has a strong allegorical / symbolic meaning: even the sunset, which can be glimpsed on the left, expresses the same concept, everything in the world is destined to end. The theme of the transience of life, always present in art, had its maximum development in the seventeenth century, closely related to the sense of precariousness that hit the European continent following the Thirty Years' War and the spread of plague epidemics. With allegorical scenes like this, rather than with the Vanitas or Memento mori, or scenes or still lifes with symbolic elements alluding to the theme of the transience of life (the skull, the candle that is consumed, a clock, a broken flower), we wanted precisely to emphasize the ephemeral condition of existence, of man and earthly goods. On the back of the work there is a cartouche that says a probable attribution to Simon Vouet. The painting, restored and relined, is presented in a re-adapted antique frame.

Andy Warhol 1996 exhibition poster

Foldable poster, printed in eight colors, of the exhibition "Vanitas: Skulls and self-portraits 1976-1986", held at the Anthony d'Offay Gallery in London from November 1985 to January 1996. On the front a composition of eight "skulls is presented. by Warhol, symbol of the transience of life; on the back, in black and white, the title of the exhibition, a critical review and the catalog of Andy Warhol's works, on the two themes of skulls and self-portraits. Dimensions of the open leaflet: 83, 8 X 53.2 cm.

Oscar Ricciardi

S. Lucia Flower Market

Oil on the table. Signed lower right. On the back the title in pencil. It is a lively and intense glimpse of the Pallonetto di S. Lucia, the well-known Neapolitan terraced alley which, together with those of San Liborio and Santa Chiara, constitutes the three Pallonetti of Naples; striking and peculiar the contrasts of lights and colors Oscar Ricciardi was a prolific Neapolitan painter considered by some to be the head of Neapolitan Impressionism; he painted as main subjects marine, beaches, glimpses, landscapes and Neapolitan customs and traditions of his city. In his works the intense chromatism, the study from life, the abandonment of drawing and the limpid and clear light that pervades the scenes, reveal the knowledge of Impressionism, due to the presence in Naples of Giuseppe De Nittis. The painting is presented in a gilded frame from the early 1900s.