PAINTINGS ONLINE | ANCIENT AND CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY

Oil on canvas. Refined in execution, the work emphasizes the great maternal tenderness of Mary, who envelops the Child in a tender embrace, with her eyes closed and absorbed in meditation on the mystery of her Son and his destiny of Passion, announced by the small Cross that Jesus holds in his hands. Jesus has his gaze fixed in the distance, He too already projected towards his destiny. The only background to the two figures is the halo light, which radiates strongly from the head of Christ, to also surround that of his mother. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a gilded frame from the 19th century.

Oil on canvas, applied to panel. Venetian school of the 17th century. The painting is inspired by the style of Paolo Veronese (see his painting preserved at the National Gallery), who was widely reproduced: the arrangement of the figures is the same, following an oblique ascending line that reaches the Holy Family on the left, towards which all eyes converge; similar is the background of the marble arch behind which a large landscape opens up. The painting is presented in a late 19th century gilded frame.

Oil on slate. The old hermit is kneeling in contemplation of the Crucifix, resting on some stones, preparing to eat the Eucharistic bread he holds in his hand. At the top left a crow flies in, holding a loaf of bread in its beak. It is probably Paul of Thebes, remembered as Paul the First Hermit (Egypt, around 230 – Thebaid, around 335), considered by Christian tradition to be the first hermit. He is venerated as a saint by the Catholic, Orthodox and Coptic Churches. According to legend, having retired to the mountains of the Thebaid desert to escape Roman persecution, he received a daily visit from a crow that brought him bread. The painting is presented in an ancient frame.

Rebecca at the Well

Oil on canvas. The scene tells a biblical episode from the book of Genesis: Eliezer, Abraham's servant, is sent by him to look for a wife for his son Isaac. At a well, Eliezer meets a young woman, Rebecca, who offers him some of the water she had just drawn for herself and her camels. The servant interprets this gesture of kindness as a divine sign and proposes her as a bride for Isaac. A widely represented subject, in this work the figure of the young Rebecca stands out in the center, intent on offering the servant Eliezer the skin full of water, while around the servants and maidservants observe the scene. The work, already relined and restored, is presented in a strip frame.

Oil on canvas. The wide, very bright and spacious countryside landscape, allowing the gaze to wander towards the distant blue peaks, features a flowing stream in the center, from which sheep and oxen drink; on the path to the left, in the foreground, a couple in classical clothing is walking. The canvas requires restoration and color consolidation, due to some color losses, mainly on the left. It is presented in a late 19th century style frame.

Oil on canvas. Central European school of the 19th century. The large scene is set on the banks of a river, which flows near a village and is crossed by a small wooden bridge. On the banks, in the foreground, a woman washes clothes, a shepherd waters his animals and a traveler observes the figures, resting leaning on his stick. Bright and serene, the painting has a scenographic impact. Restored and relined, it is presented in a period frame.

Female Head

Tempera on wood depicting a half-length female figure; she wears a red dress over a light-colored tunic, while a green cloth rests on her right shoulder. The red hair is gathered in a central parting and is partly covered by a white headdress; the full face has an absorbed expression: the pensive gaze, the arched eyebrows and the slightly furrowed lips. Presented in a frame made with parts of an ancient frame of larger size.

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. Italian school of the late 18th - early 19th century. The landscape of romantic taste sees a river flowing between rocky banks topped by leafy trees; on the bank, in the foreground on the left, two fishermen cast their lines into a pool of still water created by a small inlet. The painting bears a label on the frame attributing it to Domenico Pecchio (1693 -1760). Restored, it is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. Venetian school of the late 17th-early 18th century. Within a large classical landscape, rich in vegetation and with pink atmospheres, there is a small group of soldiers: some, resting on a rock overlooking a stream, are watching one of them who is getting wet, after having placed his armor in the water. The painting was presented at the Lempertz auction in 2017 with an attribution to Andrea Locatelli (1695 -1741) and an estimate of €7/9 thousand; the pictorial methods of the work also seem closer to those of Marco Ricci (1676 -1730), widely taken up by other authors of the Venetian area. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a late 19th century gilded frame.

Oil on canvas. Portrait of a bourgeois lady, adorned with a coral set, which stands out on her green dress: it emphasizes the woman's wealth, being a valuable material and highly symbolic of a high social status. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. Set in a classic landscape, rich in vegetation, the scene represents the biblical episode from the book of Genesis which tells how the people of Israel, who are crossing the Sinai desert to reach the Promised Land, find themselves without water: Moses invokes God's help and performs the miracle of making water spring from a rock. In the scene, the people of Israel rejoice and celebrate the miracle, rushing to bathe and quench their thirst in the pool of water evoked by Moses, who can be glimpsed standing to the left of the dry trunk in the foreground, a symbol of the aridity of the land. The branches of the trees moved by a strong wind and the sky full of dark clouds that are beginning to tear, evoke the presence of God. The multiple figures, rendered with accurate details, create movement and action. This painting has already been presented at the Lempertz auction with an attribution to Giovanni Ghisolfi (1623 -1683), an artist who developed a perfect combination between past and modernity, thanks to a deep interest in classicism, rendered however with effective perspective precision in the landscape and great precision of details in the figures. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a late 19th century gilded frame.

Oil on canvas. French school of the seventeenth century. The scene, set at night in the garden of a villa, of which you can glimpse the ornate facade on the right and in which the fountain gushing with cherubs stands out, under a dark sky and further obscured by heavy clouds, proposes two figures who entertain each other in conversation : an elderly modestly dressed is sternly admonishing a seated young man, richly dressed, who seems instead to make the gesture of mea culpa with his hand. The physiognomy and the gestures of the two characters, together with the style of the clothes, would refer to the philosopher Aristotle who was called to the court of Macedon to be the tutor of the young Alexander, the future king then known as Alexander the Great: according to what Plutarch recounts in his “Parallel Lives”, the young Alexander was a brilliant pupil, so much so that he was also initiated into the most profound and esoteric Aristotelian doctrines, from which derives the aura of mystery and profound interiority that shines through in the work presented here. The painting has been restored and relined. It is presented in a stylish frame. The painting, restored

Oil painting on canvas. At the top right are the name of the man portrayed and his age, 78 years old. The man's habit and the attitude of prayer, in front of the Crucifix, with the meditation book in his hand, identify him as a prelate. The surname Albertoni is widely spread in Italy, in various families that started from Lombardy to extend to Parma and then to Rome. The painting, restored and relined, is presented in a period frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Northern Italian school of the 17th-18th century. The work of a devotional nature, sees the Virgin Mary seated on the clouds and assisted by two angels who support her garments, is venerated by two saints, kneeling at her feet: on the right the young woman in princely clothes, at whose feet is resting a royal crown, it refers to Elizabeth of Hungary; on the left, the saint holding the Infant Jesus in his arms can be identified as San Caetano da Thiene. Particular is the play of glances between the various characters, which intertwine together with the positions and gestures, to create an almost circular movement. The painting has been restored and relined. It is presented in an ancient frame restored at the beginning of the 20th century, with various current shortcomings (to be restored).

Untitled 1958

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower right. The work of strong emotional impact proposes an almost monochromatic purple background, in which a few black and white strokes are inserted to define a silhouette curled up on the left, perhaps a human form, collected and closed in on itself. Born in 1934 in Viareggio, where he still lives, the painter and sculptor Mario Francesconi is considered one of the few survivors of Dadaism, which since the end of the 1950s has gone through the seasons of Italian and European art in a distinctly personal search for forms and techniques. Starting from his first solo show in 1959 he develops an artistic path that goes through different phases, often attributable to a passion for poor and recycled materials. His artistic activity moves between the areas of painting, sculpture, collage and installation and borders on the adjacent areas of poetry and literature, also thanks to friendships and professional relationships with some of the most significant figures of the intellectual world. Italian of the second half of the last century, from Emilio Villa to Cesare Garboli, from Leonardo Sciascia to Mario Luzi, from Cesare Zavattini to Pier Paolo Pasolini, from Alfonso Gatto to Sandro Penna to Venturino Venturi. The work is presented in a frame.

Tableau doré

Mixed technique on plywood (painting and silver paper sheets). On the back, authentic with stamp and signature of the artist's sister. The work belongs to the series of Tableaux dorés, works created by the Milanese artist Remo Bianco starting from the 1950s. Born and educated in Milan, Remo Bianco was a pupil of De Pisis, in whose studio he frequented the great Italian artists of the twentieth century (Carrà, Sironi, Savinio, Soffici, Soldati, Marini, Cantatore). After the interlude of the war (enlisted, sank with his ship and was taken prisoner in Tunis), he resumed his artistic activity in Milan, participating in the Nuclear Movement and Spatialism, coming to completely detach himself from figurative painting to create works made of brushstrokes mashed potato. At the beginning of the fifties he began to create works, pictorial and sculptural, with different materials and to experiment with different themes and techniques; to this production belong the Tableaux dorés, composed of silvered or gilded aluminum foils on painted bases. The work is presented in a frame.

Pencil on paper. Bottom right, on both, the writing "Pietro Mulazzi sketched", with the date 1883. By an unknown artist but skilled in the use of pencils, these are the portraits of a bourgeois couple, whose gray faces emerge clearly from the paper background red. They are presented in contemporary gilded frames, with several shortcomings (to be restored).