Giovanni Gaibazzi Young Women Bathing Antique Painting 1855 - Young Women Bathing, 1855

Oil on canvas. Italian school of the 18th century. The elegant gentleman is portrayed with some volumes placed on the surface in front of him, on the spines of which the authors can be read; the name of Paolo Valcarenghi, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Pavia in the 18th century, stands out in particular. The man portrayed therefore wants to underline his belonging to the world of Medicine. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a frame reconstructed with ancient elements and equipped on the upper side with a working lighting headlight from the mid-1900s.

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. 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. 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 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).

Reduced version from an altarpiece by Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli

Oil painting on canvas. Venetian school of the seventeenth century. Entirely in the foreground, this scene of a group of sacred figures, which presents the faces of Mary and the Child Jesus in the centre, surrounded by the young San Giovanni in the lower left, and three angels forming a crown around. All the characters are happy and smiling, despite the reference to passion given by the stick surmounted by the Cross which John offers to Jesus. The movement of the bodies and the bright colors make the scene come alive. The painting is still on the first canvas, with no signs of previous restoration. There are several drops of color, spread above all along the lower margin and the two sides. It is presented in an antique lacquered wooden frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Tuscan school of the seventeenth century. Scion of an ancient Longobard lineage of Aquino (in the province of Frosinone), Thomas (born around 1226) went to Naples to study, in 1243 he entered the order of Dominican preachers against the wishes of his relatives, but during the journey to the northerner was arrested by his brothers and held prisoner for about a year. In the scene, the young saint in the centre, already dressed in the Dominican habit, is surrounded on both sides by four richly dressed figures, precisely his relatives, probably including his mother, who hold him kindly, almost embracing him, while with gestures of the hands and the afflicted and loving looks try to convince him, almost begging him. The figures are also placed in a prison, as indicated by the bars in the window on the right, to underline the coercive action performed. Rich and detailed are the details of the clothes of the characters, with bright colors that contrast with Thomas' dress, plastic movements properly in Baroque taste. Already restored and relined, the painting is in good condition, with evident cracking. It is presented in an antique re-lacquered and re-gilded frame.

Oil on canvas. Lombard school of the 17th century. According to the classic iconography, the penitent Magdalene is depicted with tears in her eyes, her hair loose, undressed, holding the jar of ointment with which she anointed Jesus in the Gospel episode, and the skull, the Memento mori par excellence. Above her, a little angel points to the sky above. The pictorial methods are very similar to a similar work by Panfilo Nuvolone (1581 -1651), an Italian painter active between Lombardy and Emilia, an interpreter of an outdated late Mannerism inspired by the dictates of the Counter-Reformation, known for his still lifes but also the author of figures similar to this one. The painting, restored and relined, is presented in an antique gilded frame.

Oil on canvas. Venetian school of the 17th century. The figures, portrayed in the foreground half-length, see Mary placed in the center with the baby Jesus in her arms; behind them on the left is Saint Joseph and below him the little John the Baptist, dressed in furs and with the traditional cross-shaped staff with the band bearing the inscription "Ecce Agnus Dei". The gazes of these four figures are turned to the left, where Saint Catherine of Siena appears, recognizable by the black habit of the Dominicans, and by her iconographic attributes, the crown of thorns, the stigmata and the lily. Jesus is holding out his hands towards her, to stipulate that mystical marriage that characterized the saint. Restored and relined, the painting shows widespread small losses of color. It is presented in a re-adapted 19th century frame.

Oil on canvas. Portrait of a nobleman, proud with his hand resting on the hilt of his sword and dressed in a cloak edged with ermine. At the top right appears the coat of arms of his family, which features a red lion rampant crowned and holding a sword; across is a band with three groups of balls arranged in a flower. A similar lion rampant is found in the coat of arms of some cities in central Italy, such as Faenza. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a contemporary frame in carved and lacquered wood.

Adoration of the Shepherds, ca. 1620

Oil on canvas. Venetian school of the 17th century. Looking at the models spread by Jacopo Bassano, the painting presents a scene full of figures and surrounding elements typical of pastoral life, elegant but with a rustic simplicity. The shepherds create with Mary and Joseph a circle of figures adoring the Baby Jesus, a circle in which the animals, the ox and the sheep also participate, while the little angels complete the scene by circling above. The work can be traced back to the production of Baldassarre D'Anna, a painter born in Venice who trained with Leonardo Corona, of whom he reproduced the chromatic liveliness and the chiaroscuro instance, and then worked in Venice, in Dalmatia, in Istria and in the whole Friuli area. It is placed in the artist's best phase, between 1610 and 1620, in particular we find the same characteristics and many characters of the series of eight canvases made around 1620 for the Santuario delle Grazie in Cordovado in the province of Pordenone: similar are the vivid colors spread with clear backgrounds and sharp draperies, the energetic contours, the severe and marked physiognomies that are found both in the shepherds and in the kneeling Madonna. We also find in the work the realistic notes "alla Bassano", such as the basket of eggs from which a napkin emerges, the architectures devoid of any monumentality. Due to its small size, this canvas can be traced back to a private commission, intended for personal devotion or for collecting. The painting, restored and relined, is presented in a gilded frame in style. The painting is accompanied by an expertise.

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.