SELEZIONE ARTE

Fiesole 1465 ca. – 1526

Painted stucco sculpture, representing the bust of Christ the Redeemer. Dressed in a red tunic embellished with a golden collar, a blue cloak is draped over his left shoulder. The face is slightly tilted to the left, the features pointed and gaunt, the gaze melancholic and low, and is framed by long, almost disheveled curls. Presented with a molded wooden base, lacquered in black and with golden inserts, of 17th century Tuscan manufacture.

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.

Tuscany, 1470-1480 ca.

Polychrome wooden sculpture depicting the Crucified Christ, with emaciated limbs and his head reclining on his chest; the body is painted with an earthy hue, around the hips a loincloth which has been reproduced in the lacquering.

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.

Love and Psyche

Oil painting on canvas. Northern Italian school of the 17th century. The scene refers, with some variations but very close in size, to a part of the large fresco entitled "Banchetto degli dei" in the Chamber of Cupid (or Chamber of Cupid and Psyche) of Palazzo Té in Mantua, a large representation of over nine meters made by Giulio Romano with his workshop in the 16th century. The proposed scene (which in Mantua is located to the right of the great banquet) sees Cupid and Psyche lying on a triclinium, while a small winged figure crowns them with laurel and two nymphs wash Cupid's hand; in the background on the right a group of satyrs is sacrificing a goat to the altar of a deity, while in the centre, in the distance, a city is burning. The banquet of the gods is the final moment of the myth of the two lovers who, after many trials and vicissitudes, obtain Venus'permission to get married. The work, restored and relined, is presented in an antique 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.