Family Portrait Oil on Canvas Italy 1856

Oil on wooden board. Signed lower right. These are three small paintings proposing landscape glimpses, made in the naturalistic style typical of Lorenzo Gignous: the two lateral ones, measuring 24 x 30 cm, propose the most recurring subject in the Lombard artist's production, i.e. glimpses of Lake Maggiore, animated by fishing boats; in the center a smaller landscape (18 x 25 cm) with a group of trees in the countryside. The three small paintings are presented in a single coeval frame.

Composed of woodblocked sheets, sewn together and partly colored, with matching figures and texts. The group consists of 23 booklets, of which two in three copies and one in four copies; another couple has the same cover but different contents. The booklets can be considered as "manga" of the nineteenth century: the word "manga" still today can designate many different productions, such as single cartoons, scattered drawings, more elaborate illustrations, comic strips, comic books, as well as animated drawings. Therefore, starting from the assumption that there is no "manga form" but different ways of conceiving objects and graphic forms all denominated with this word, the term manga can be attested in literary and essayistic use in Japan as early as the eighteenth century to indicate, as mentioned above, drawings and sketches. But it is from the first half of the nineteenth century that Katsushika Hokusai's 15 volumes of illustrations, studies, graphic entertainment and detailed bichromatic prints became established, thanks to the progressive publication, starting from 1814. If, on the other hand, we want to give the word the more specific meaning of “stories drawn in sequence”, then the debut must be placed in the second half of the nineteenth century, similarly to what happened in Europe and the United States for comics. The booklets are in good condition.

Oil painting on canvas. Of a bucolic and serene flavor, the scene set in the countryside on the edge of the village that can be glimpsed on the left, sees a woman and her son who, near a stream, await the shepherd with his flock with a lunch basket . Restored and relined, the painting is presented in an antique frame.

Oil on canvas. This is a traditional depiction of the event of Jesus' death on the Cross, with his mother Mary and the beloved disciple at the foot of the Cross, contemplating the dying Christ; in the background the city of Jerusalem. Very essential in its depiction, and static in the positions of the evangelical figures, the scene emphasises the drama with a sombre background, although a light opens up high above Christ to announce divine participation in the event. The painting, which has already been retouched, shows some minor colour fading.