SELEZIONE ARTE - Page 2

River Landscape with Shepherdess and Ruins

Oil on canvas. Signed " Schütz fecit" on the ruin to the right of the shepherdess. Christian Georg Schütz the Elder captures an idyllic and serene landscape, crossed by a winding and slow river; on the right bank stand some architectural ruins of classical structures, while in the foreground, seated in the center, serene and composed, a shepherdess spins wool while watching over her small flock of goats and cows. The painting is a hymn to nature, where the naturalistic elements, the earth, the sky, the river meet to form a harmonious and balanced scene, pervaded by pink light, in which the living figures and the architectural remains fit in with balance and calm. Schütz mainly painted river views of the Rhine and the Main, places he inhabited, and worked for important German clients, nobles and prelates. The painting has participated in several art auctions. Restored and relined, it is presented in a period frame.

Clash between Military and Guerrillas in Spain

Oil on canvas. Accompanied by an expertise by Professor Fernando Mazzocca. The painting belongs to a series of works by the Veronese painter Giuseppe Canella set in Spain, following the artist's stay in that country between 1820 and 1823, which led him to stop in various Spanish cities, the last being Madrid where he frequented the court. From his travels around Europe, Canella brought back numerous drawings from which he took inspiration for the works later reworked in his studio in Milan, often then presented at the Exhibitions of the Brera Academy. In this work the reference is to a dramatic period in the history of Spain, marked by the constitutional uprisings against King Ferdinand VII of Bourbon, which provoked French intervention in support of the monarchy against the rebels. In reality, the historical event is almost a pretext for Canella to recall the harshness and charm of the mountainous landscape, which acts as a monumental backdrop to the clash between the army and the rebels, small and almost indistinct figures. The painting, in excellent condition, presents only very slight losses of color, already restored. It is presented in a contemporary frame.

A Cherry Seller Being Courted by Two Musicians ca. 1720

Oil on canvas. The painting is accompanied by an expertise by the art historian Dr. Giuseppe Sava. The protagonist of the open-air market scene is a cherry seller, wearing a showy straw hat and sitting next to a basket of these fruits placed on a wooden bench, next to a stone on which the steelyard rests. With a smiling, almost winking look, turned towards the viewer, she is accepting the advances of the man who, behind her, is placing a hand on her shoulder, with a lascivious look, while two musicians on the left improvise a small concert. The composite and cheerful group harks back to the production of Giacomo Francesco Cipper, known as Todeschini (1664 -1736), a painter of Austrian origins but Lombard in training and pictorial style, who was a "singer of peasants, street vendors intent on their daily occupations or pastimes", a specialist in market scenes, open-air concerts, card players, scenes of humble daily life created with laughing caricatural forcing and a search for comic effect. Cipper drew this narrative style from the Danish painter known as Monsù Bernardo, who was active for a long time in Italy between Bergamo and Milan: in particular, from him came the predilection for everyday stories and humble characters, as well as the impertinent nature of such characters, who seek the attention of the observer by staring at him. In this painting too, the female protagonist fixes her mischievous gaze on the observer, smiling with complicity and irony at the courtship game in which the three men make her the protagonist, implying a "market" that is no longer just that of cherries. In his expertise, Dr. Sava underlines the stylistic and typological relations of this painting with other characters by Cipper, in support of the attribution; the stylistic evolution in the formal and technical aspects of his works is also explained - the colors that lighten, with an evident predilection for ochre, hazelnut, sage green, among which powder blue creeps in; the milky backgrounds, the softer luminosity and the less plastic chiaroscuro -, an evolution that allows us to place the work in his production of the early 18th century. The painting has been restored and relined. It is presented in an adapted antique frame.

Venice, Early XIX Century

Pair of candle holders resting on bases, Venice first half of the 19th century. Carved and lacquered Moors, dressed in mecca-gilded and multi-coloured robes and shoes; with their raised arm they hold a candle base, while in the other they hold a small plate. The two moors rest on the same number of lacquered octagonal bases, decorated with marbled elements and a pair of carved and gilded lion protomes. Dishes that are not contemporary.

Penitent Magdalene, ca. 1750

Oil on canvas. The figure of Mary Magdalene is represented here, as per tradition, with long red hair; with a gesture of painful dedication she fixes her gaze on the crucifix, which she holds with her left hand pressed against her right arm, which in turn is folded in a sign of collected penitence. The whole body is rendered with a splendid counter-twist, which has the effect of making the viewer feel the tension of the moment experienced by the saint. On her left is visible the skull, her traditional attribute, and in the background one can glimpse the outline of the cave in which she is placed. The part of the body emerges, thanks to the intense luminosity of the arms, connected to the red ochre shades of the hair and face, thus also accentuating the erotic character of the scene, recalling the exuberant painting of Rubens, which had a great influence on Crespi's work. This captivating and delightful figure of the Magdalene follows the widespread trend in the 17th and 18th centuries to depict saints with an undertone of human sensuality, revealing the patrons' preference for sacred themes imbued with profane elements. The painting, restored and relined, is presented in a late 19th-early 20th century frame.

The Penitent Magdalene and St. John the Baptist

Oil on slate. Two examples of oil painting on stone are proposed here, a pictorial genre that was particularly popular in the Venetian Republic between the 16th and 17th centuries, in its form of oil painting on blackboard or touchstone. The choice of such a dark stone as a background is not only linked to practical reasons (the proximity of the mines of Brescia and Val Brembana), but, as our two works clearly demonstrate, the emergence of the figures from the dark background responds to the light also full to the new needs of the painting of the time, which in the climate of the Counter-Reformation, tended to express not only the idealized existential certainties of the full Renaissance, but also the anxieties and the opening up to new phases, already tending with Tintoretto towards greater attention to reality and luministic contrasts, to then flow overwhelmingly into seventeenth-century research strongly focused on the contrasting combination of light and shadow. The two works presented here, well within the production of the Venetian area of ​​the first decades of the 17th century, propose two figures of saints, both hermits, placed on a dark, barely visible naturalistic background. The figure of Magdalene emerges from the darkness, leaning to follow the curve of the stone support; she is depicted looking questioningly towards the darkness, as if in a listening attitude, her left hand raised and the other resting on the remarkably shortened "memento mori". In front of her a scourge and the jar of ointment. Painted en pendant, Saint John the Baptist is represented as a young man, with a lamb at his feet, in his hand the processional cross with the banner "ecce agnus dei", while with his right hand he draws from the water source, recalling the episode that will see Jesus Christ baptized. In both paintings the figures stand out in a strong and incisive way thanks to the black that characterizes the slate plaque on which they are depicted. The two paintings, in an oval format, are presented in black wooden frames, from the late 19th century.

Chiquito Futbolista de Tanger 1982

Sanguine on paper. Signed and dated in Roman numerals lower right. The title at the top right. Claudio Bravo Camus was a Chilean painter who established himself above all for his compositions (particularly parcels) and hyper-realistic portraits, including those of eminent political figures. Rightly considered one of the greatest masters of hyperrealism, Claudio Bravo pursued photography in painting, but always starting from the direct observation of the objects themselves: "The eyes see much more than the camera: half tones, shadows, minute changes of color and lights,” he said. The portrait presented here, that of a well-known Moroccan football player, exudes a meticulous and mimetic realism, particularly in the man's gaze; it was created during the years in which the artist lived in Tangier, where he had taken refuge to escape Franco's dictatorship. It is presented in a frame.

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)

Italy, Half XIX Century

Female statue in white statuary marble, allegorical personification of autumn, Italy mid-19th century. Whole figure dressed in the old fashioned way with gown, headdress of vine leaves and bunches of grapes, the latter also placed along the left side; with his right arm he holds autumn fruits. Resting on a circular base. Small breaks.

Lombardy Early 18th Century

Sculpture of a baroque angel holding a vase in carved lime wood and completely repainted black in a later period, Lombardy, early 18th century. The figure, dressed in a robe decorated with lambrequins, is placed on a base supported by four feral feet. The tastings carried out brought the original colors to light.

3 Faces 8 Leaves

Gouaches on paper. On the back there are stickers from Sotheby's Auction with the artist's name and the original title "Three faces eight leaves". These are two similar drawings, with the same subject albeit with small differences, and colored with different techniques. Jean Cocteau was a multifaceted artist: writer, playwright, playwright, he also dabbled in the visual arts, loving to experiment with all the avant-gardes of his century. Jean Cocteau published his first book of drawings in 1923, at just 36 years old. In it the poet portrayed his friends Raymond Radiguet, Pablo Picasso, Erik Satie, Francis Poulenc, but also numerous scenes of Parisian daily life, Nijinski's Russian ballets, allegories, caricatures, poetic images. Cocteau reveals himself to be a talented sketcher, but above all an artist capable of capturing the essence of faces, behaviors and human weaknesses. Framed work.

Feast day in the Village

Oil on canvas. On the back of the painting there are some labels: one from an English market (probably an auction from the early 1900s) bearing the title; a second from a Milanese gallery in via Montenapoleone (from the 1930s) and finally a label from an important private collection. The scene proposes a moment of celebration in a Nordic village: in the center of the street men and women dance and chat, while others sit at tables drinking and playing, children and animals chase each other around; the atmosphere is lively and cheerful. The pictorial style and the methods of execution are compatible with the production of David Teniers III (son of David Teniers II the Younger), a Flemish painter who in his production includes various scenes of festivity and village life. Restored and relined at the end of the 19th century, with a frame from the same period.