ANCIENT PAINTING - Page 3

Oil on canvas. Northern Italian school of the 17th century. Veronica, a character who appears during the Passion of Christ, was the pious woman who, following Jesus on his climb to Calvary with the cross on her shoulders, cleaned his face with a cloth: according to tradition, Jesus' face remained imprinted on the cloth. Therefore the saint is iconographically depicted while presenting this cloth, in memory of the miracle received following her charitable gesture, as in this painting, where on the left in the background appear the three Crosses of Golgotha, towards which Veronica turns, to remember that she was a witness to the death of Jesus. Already restored and relined, probably in the late 19th - early 20th century, the canvas presents further small losses of color and stains. It is presented in an antique regilded frame.

Oil on canvas. At the center of the scene a king kneels in a contrite attitude before an old man, who bends toward him with an attitude of benevolent welcome; around him the soldiers of the entourage and other dignitaries assist, participating and obsequious. It could be the biblical episode of King David's repentance before the prophet Nathan, who opened his eyes to his sin of concubinage with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah, and then assures him of the Lord's forgiveness. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame, composed of ancient elements, with several missing parts.

Oil on canvas. The scene depicts a battle between an army of Moors and white soldiers, defending a fortification from which they fire cannons, while in the background, on the top of a promontory, a white city emerges. Set near the sea, with several invading vessels heading towards the coast, the scene focuses on the capture of the Moorish king, in the center on his white horse, with a dismayed expression on his face because he is surrounded by opposing soldiers who try to unseat him, while his own soldiers try to defend him. The atmosphere of the scene is dominated by the dust and smoke of the cannons, which cover all the characters in an earthy veil, even where the colors of the clothes would be more vivid. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. Lombard school of the late 17th century. Scene of a battle fought on a plain between the cavalry of two Nordic armies. In the center, two knights are facing each other with bladed weapons, while around them there are those who shoot, those who play the trumpet, those who have fallen from their horses and beg for help; dust and clouds blur the contours of the surrounding landscape. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. The large painting tells the famous mythological episode of the Judgement of Paris, the event that helped trigger the Trojan War. Paris, a Trojan prince, was called to settle the dispute between the three goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, over who deserved to be awarded the golden apple to "the most beautiful", thrown by the goddess Discord on the table of the gods. Each of the three goddesses promised Paris a reward in exchange for the apple, and he chose Aphrodite, who had promised him the most beautiful woman in the world, namely Helen, the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. In the large scene, Paris is sitting in the center, between the legs of the goddess Aphrodite, to whom he holds out the apple with his raised arm; Aphrodite is taking the apple with one hand, while she turns upwards to indicate to the god Cupid, hovering above her, to carry out his task. On the left, the other two goddesses turn their backs, indignant and frowning, while above the god Mercury decrees Aphrodite's victory, pointing at her with his staff, the caduceus symbol of the agreement reached, and the god Cupid, on Aphrodite's instructions, prepares the fiery arrow with which he will make Helen fall in love with Paris. The scene is completed by a putto who pours water from a vase from above, perhaps a sort of baptism, or consecration of the choice. The imposing and strongly carnal figures fill the scene in a tangle of bodies, which with the variation of the flesh colors - pale those of the divinities, more vivid that of the shepherd prince, (the only mortal in the fact!), but all played out in a single chromatic range -, create a chromatic homogeneity. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. Dutch school of the 17th century. The young nobleman, very serious, looks out from an oval painted frame, on which he rests his hand to show off his family ring. The painting, already relined and applied to a recent frame, requires further restoration due to paint loss in the painted part. Presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. Dutch school of the 17th century. The young nobleman, very serious, looks out from an oval painted frame, on which he rests his hand to show off his family ring. The painting, already relined and applied to a recent frame, requires further restoration due to paint loss in the painted part. Presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. Venetian school of the 18th century. The large Nordic landscape, with verdant mountain slopes through which a river flows, is inhabited by several figures in the foreground: a group of people are listening to a young man standing in the center, who is announcing something, pointing, with his arm stretched upwards, to the sun that is tearing apart the dark clouds. It evokes a sermon by Saint John the Baptist, although no iconographic element specifically refers to this character. The painting, restored and relined, is mounted on a stretcher from the early 1900s. It is presented in a contemporary frame.

Oil on canvas. The large painting represents the triumph of the god Bacchus, incarnation of pleasure, who, now drunk, sits on the ground, holding between his legs a jar from which wine flows, while around him various Maenads dance, play, and a bejeweled woman, perhaps Ariadne of royal lineage, throws flower petals on his head; above, an angel plays a trumpet as a sign of celebration, while at the bottom left, two small satyrs are sleeping, crouched on the ground. The intertwining of the bodies and the rather homogeneous chromatic range, which goes from the pale pink flesh tones of the nymphs to the earthy ruby color of Bacchus, fading into the reddish background, give the scene uniformity but ample movement. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.

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. Flemish school of the early 19th century. The scene, set in the shabby and spartan environment of an inn, features two card players using a barrel as a support surface, watched by two others, while they drink their mug of wine and smoke. The innkeeper, with his back to the right, is leaving the room. The scene is lively and amusing, with rather caricatural characters. On the first canvas, the painting is presented in a late 19th century gilded 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.