SELEZIONE ARTE

Madonna and Child between Saint Ansanus and Saint Catherine

Oil on panel. The work is accompanied by an expert report by Professor Mauro Minardi, who attributes the painting to the work of Bartolomeo Neroni, known as Riccio, an artist active in Siena in the 16th century, through a documented comparison of the pictorial elements of this work with others by the same artist. The painting features a subject that was widely used in the Sienese artistic scene of the 16th century: a Madonna and Child with Saints. In this tondo, Mary is depicted half-length, holding the Baby Jesus, who stands before her on a support surface: the hands of mother and child are intertwined in a gesture of tenderness. To their sides, in the background, are two figures of saints, among those most venerated in Siena: on the right, Saint Catherine, recognizable by her black monastic habit with a white veil and wimple, and holding the traditional lily, a symbol of purity; On the left is a lesser-known saint, Saint Ansanus, a young knight who lived in Siena in the 3rd century, then a Roman colony, where he preached Christianity and was martyred. The young saint is depicted holding a flagpole in one hand and a spherical object in the other, which, according to his iconography, should represent a heart. The work therefore falls within the devotional painting style that was widespread in the 16th century, to which Riccio and his studio devoted considerable effort, given the large number of similar examples that have survived and are attributed to him, thanks in part to fortunate documentation for some of them. The painting's images are inscribed in a gilded frame embossed in the same panel. The back of the panel is reinforced with parquetry. There are some paint losses.

Horizon, 1962

Acrylic and mixed media on canvas. Signed and dated lower center. Hsiao Chin, an artist of Taiwanese origin who lived and worked for a long time in Milan, conceived art as a path of growth and knowledge, a spiritual journey through time and space, which goes beyond any geographical and cultural limit. In his works, the spiritual practices of the East are perfectly combined with the artistic experiments of the West, which he knew from his long stays in various countries around the world. On the one hand, his paintings can make you think of a written page in which the artist appeals to Eastern symbolism, creating a message made of subtle signs, almost ideograms, alternating with geometric shapes evoking ancestral and shared meanings (circles, squares, spirals...); on the other hand, the bold chromatic choices, full of energy, and the brush strokes, sometimes frenetic and sparkling, sometimes more liquid and calibrated, appear "Western". The artist has said of himself: “Today the question of whether my art is Chinese or global is no longer important to me. I try to go beyond these boundaries, with the aim of creating new works that are not conditioned by techniques and ideas.” (Hsiao Chin, 2016). The work presented here, dated 1962, belongs to the period spent by Hsiao Chin in Europe first and then in New York, in which he came into contact with all the new currents of abstraction, which determined in his painting “a new course”, in which the approach to American minimalism and hard edge painting is evident (painting with "sharp contrasts", or a pictorial style characterized by sharp and sharp contrasts between different areas of color, which can be simple geometric shapes or straight lines. The color of each area is predominantly homogeneous and monochrome). The work is presented in a frame. The work comes from a private collection in Milan, which documents the family's direct contact with the artist through a series of photographic images in his company (copies attached).

Fiesole ca. 1465 – 1526

Painted stucco sculpture depicting the bust of Christ the Redeemer. Dressed in a red tunic embellished with a gold collar, a blue cloak is draped over his left shoulder. His face is slightly turned to the left, his features pointed and gaunt, his gaze melancholic and downcast, framed by long, almost disheveled curls. Presented with a molded wooden base, lacquered in black with gold inserts, made in Tuscany in the 17th century.

Nativity

Oil on canvas. Second half of the 16th century. The painting comes from the historical family collection of Count Castracane, as documented by the original autographed paper receipt of Francesco Bassano (attached to the work) which states: "Your Illustrious Count Castracane. Recipio de somesso sua somma de quinquaginta ducati per lo dipinto de mano mia de Nativitas Domini Nostri come Ella mhada ordenato. Dev.mo Obb.mo Servo suo Franciscus da Ponte de Bassano. Il die 12 decembre 1589". On the back of the frame there is also an inventory label at the top and the writing "proprietà Castracane" at the bottom. The aforementioned Count Castracane belongs to the noble family of Castracani degli Altelminelli di Fano, of Lucca origin. Francesco Dal Ponte da Bassano, known as Il Giovane, worked for many years in the important workshop of his father Jacopo, known as Bassano il Vecchio, before moving to Venice in 1578 where he opened his own personal atelier, while continuing to collaborate with the Bassano workshop, which was managed in the meantime by his brother Leandro after the death of his father. Towards the end of the 1580s, however, Francesco experienced a crisis that was also reflected in his allegorical production: in a progressive approach to the taste of his brother Leandro, the colour became lighter, losing strength, the forms dilated and simplified, the composition became fragmented. The production of the Bassano family was distinguished above all by sacred subjects, inserted however in rural settings, which lead to their being defined as biblical-pastoral. In this painting too, the Holy Family does not dominate the centrality of the scene, but is one of the two groups of very human figures that occupy the right part of the scene, while on the left stands out the group of shepherds with the animals of the countryside and the simple objects of everyday life. The rural context is also well defined by the surrounding objects, despite the hut of the birth being replaced by an architectural structure with marble columns, but of a colour that blends in with the other surrounding structures. The only spiritual elements are the angel - solitary! - who appears to the shepherds for the announcement, relegated to the top, small and barely hinted at; and the halo that surrounds the head of the Baby Jesus, who is also depicted peacefully asleep, unaware of what is happening around him and what awaits him. Characteristic of the production of his father's Bassano workshop were the richness and chromatic vivacity and the luminous contrasts, which however were toned down in Francesco, translating into more tenuous chromatic choices and simplified forms, losing part of their strength. This can also be seen in this work, which dates back to the last years of the artist's life, especially in the characters' clothes; note in particular how Mary's dress is no longer red as per tradition, a colour strongly symbolic of human pain, but is the same pink shade as the central shepherd's tunic, almost as if to underline the Madonna's belonging to humble and simple humanity. Moreover, Francesco Bassano in his last period, due to his health compromised by serious hypochondria (he committed suicide in 1592), received commissions for works that were only partially executed by him, but delegated at least partially to his assistants. This indicates that the work was commissioned to him and came from his workshop, as his autographed declaration states, but probably not made directly by the master, but rather by one of his collaborators. The painting has been restored and relined. It is presented in an antique wooden frame from the late 18th - early 19th century.

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).

Snowy Landscape with Figures 1872

Oil on canvas. Signed, dated 1872 and located in Parma in the lower right corner. It is a large winter landscape with a strong scenic impact, which fits well into the scenographic traditionalism of the painting of Mentore Silvani, a native artist of Traversetolo (Parma), a landscape painter but also known as a set designer. In the scene, sprinkled with the white of a short snowfall that creates that typical rarefied and silent winter atmosphere, between bare and dry trees, a dirt road winds its way through by a traveler; on the right a dilapidated building with a wash house where a woman draws water; in the center a small column on which a sacred image is mounted. Trained in his hometown, Silvani participated in the exhibitions of the Encouragement of Parma starting from 1864, and it is mainly in his city that his works are found today (at the Municipality of Parma, the National Gallery, the Paolo Toschi artistic high school ); however, he also exhibited in Milan (1872) and Florence (1875). Trained as a scenographer at the school of Gerolamo Magnani, Silvani held this position in Parma but also in Venice starting from 1871. His pictorial production, which includes mainly rural landscapes of the Parma countryside, is always characterized by fidelity to reality. The work proposed here is presented in a contemporary frame.

Drunk Baccus

Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. The god is depicted standing on the scene, clad only in a cloth around his loins and by ivy leaves placed on his hips and head, while holding a chalice in one hand; his gaze is vacant and dazed. Behind him, a semi-reclining putto plays with ivy. All around are white clouds, just as the ground is white, with flashes of blue sky and a green bush creating the only contrasts. On the back of the work is the label 'Mario Galli Collezione d'Arte', with cataloguing number 64 and the artist's autograph inscription. The work well represents the painting of this artist, who was born in Modena but trained artistically first in Rome and then in Florence, where he spent most of his life. His rich production initially proposed mainly historical subjects, but then turned to portraits and finally to landscapes. His uniqueness can be recognised in his ability to range from historical subjects, often placed in settings taken from ancient Pompeii, to the Macchiaioli-style naturalism of his second period, in which Muzzioli sought a significant perception of atmosphere and light in subjects inspired by the rural Tuscan environment, often set in antiquity. In this work, a portrait of a mythological character, the artist's luministic intent strongly transpires, the search for the effect of light playing on the naked bodies of the god and the putto, then fading into the background. The Art Gallery label leads back to the Florentine Mario Galli (1877 -1946), a sculptor who was also an important collector of works especially by Macchiaioli. The work shows an important crack and has been retouched. It is presented in a stylish frame.