PAINTINGS ONLINE | ANCIENT AND CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY

Oil on canvas. Lombard school of the 17th century. On the first canvas and mounted on the original frame. Set in a prison, the scene shows Saint Ambrose the bishop directing the person on his right, a soldier with a cross around his neck, towards the sky. He can be identified as Saint Victor, a Roman soldier originally from Mauritania, who served in Milan at the time of Maximian and was martyred for his Christian faith. It was the bishop of Milan who recounted the life and martyrdom of the saint in one of his writings and who spread his cult. On the left, another probable martyr of the faith, who witnesses the proclamation of the beatitude of his cellmate; around, numerous other figures of condemned men. The octagonal painting probably belongs to a series dedicated to the cult of the Holy Bishop of Milan. The canvas requires restoration and cleaning, presenting several stains and cuts (a tear in the centre, other smaller ones on the sides).

Landscape with Hills, 1958

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower right. The large landscape offers a view of green and flowery hills, which opens the view onto the plain below, inhabited by several groups of houses; on the steep hill a row of cypress trees that climb diagonally, marks the climb to a house that is not visible, but identified by the gate at the base. Perhaps a landscape from Brianza (but it could also be a Tuscan glimpse!), it belongs to the vast traditionalist landscape production of the Lombard painter Arnaldo Annoni. It is presented in a contemporary frame.

Love and Wine

Oil on metal plate, with a trapezoidal shape and a concave center, in which the pictorial scene is inscribed, while the four corners are embossed with decorations. The painting presents a cheerful and gallant scene between a young and attractive innkeeper, who is pouring wine from the barrel into the flasks, and a customer who approaches her to have his glass filled. The painting has slight color losses. It is presented in a glass case frame, in style.

Soap Bubbles

Oil on metal plate, with a trapezoidal shape and a concave center, in which the pictorial scene is inscribed, while the four corners are embossed with decorations. The painting offers a joyful scene: a group of children play with soap bubbles that one of them is blowing, while the others watch them amused and the older girl lifts the little one up so he can catch them! There are slight color losses. It is presented in a style display frame.

Oil on canvas. Mary is depicted here in an attitude of suffering inner concentration, her gaze turned downwards, her head resting on her hand, her expression sad; even though she is haloed, the human dimension prevails in this painting, the suffering mother. Behind her is a deserted and barren landscape, accentuating her solitude and suffering. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.

Gouache on cardboard. Accompanied by a Finarte authentication from 1982, which defines it as "Marco Ricci school". The landscape features a wide valley nestled between mountain peaks and inhabited by a village, with the river in the foreground, on whose bank some characters are engaged in conversation. The colors are soft and bright. The work is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas, applied to panel. A very human newborn Jesus lies abandoned in his sleep, while little John venerates him by kissing his chubby little hand; resting on the white sheets of the cradle, the pastoral staff in the shape of a cross, with the band bearing the writing "Ecce Homo": the only iconographic symbol of spiritual content, it is however also proposed in smaller dimensions, appropriate to the age of the two children. The work presents some small losses of paint. Strip frame.

Untitled

Oil on linoleum, with applications in polystyrene covered with foil. Signed on the back. Accompanied by authentication from the Aldo Mondino Archive. The eclectic Turin artist Aldo Mondino has articulated his artistic research through continuous metamorphoses that have made his production polymorphic: an incessant attempt to find a personal response to the transformations that were taking place in the Seventies, trying to make the history of art coexist with images of mass consumption, personal fantasies, religion, classicism, mysticism, travels to the East, friends and kitsch. His obstinate need to experiment with materials – such as coffee, sweets, sugar, chocolate castings from his beloved Piedmont, marshmallows imported from America, bronze, flowers, strictly blue Bic pens, ceramics and Heraclite carpets – demonstrates his ability to make art, craftsmanship, common life, nature and religion dialogue. All seasoned with the use of irony, to unmask conventions with grace. In the 1980s Aldo Mondino undertook a journey between Morocco and Palestine that left a real mark on him, so much so that it generated the series of works of the Dervishes, dancing subjects painted on linoleum, who practice the ritual dance characteristic of the Turkish tradition by performing fluid and circular movements. The work is presented in a frame.

Oil on canvas. Looking at the compositions of the 17th-18th century, the painting proposes a composition of variegated and colorful flowers, which surmount a sculpture of three fauns and a cut pumpkin. It is presented in a contemporary frame.

Mixed technique on paper. The work is signed lower right A. Mancini, but cannot be attributed to the master Antonio Mancini, but rather to a contemporary imitator. However of good quality, it presents the face of a young commoner. It is presented in a contemporary frame.

Oil on canvas. This is a copy of the famous work by Raffaello Sanzio (1483 -1520), created by the artist from Urbino in 1513-1514 and currently preserved in the Palatine Gallery of Palazzo Pitti in Florence. The figures, inscribed in a tondo as in the original work, are made up of Mary, sitting on a rich chair, Baby Jesus in her arms, and Saint John at her side; while the Mother and Child look forward - Mary directly towards the viewer, Jesus a little further away -, little John emerges from the dark background and addresses a prayerful gesture to Mary. The chair on which Mary sits is a Camerale chair, or one of the Pope's privileged seats, a strong symbol of authority in doctrine and certain teaching, attributes of Mary: She is the Mother of God who sits in the cathedra. The color of Jesus' robe is particular, a central yellow spot that refers to the robe of the "Servant", a warning for the Pope who commissioned the original work. The work is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. Looking at the still lifes of the past, the canvas offers a colorful and detailed outdoor composition, with fruit stands, vases of flowers and, in the center, a hunting rifle with the hunted prey, a hare and some birds. The painting is presented in a contemporary frame (to be regilded).

Oil on canvas. Italian school of the 17th-18th century. Mary and the Baby Jesus, standing on her knees, are depicted already in the glory of heaven, with little angels at their side. Peculiar are the coral necklace and bracelets worn by the Child: in Christian symbolism the color of this material represents the blood that Jesus will have to shed; moreover, since ancient times, coral was also considered a talisman of protection against the evil eye and the forces of evil, and small children were adorned with it to protect them from the devil. The painting is on the first canvas and presented in an ancient contemporary frame.

Copper panels decorated with enamels. This is a 19th-century reproduction of the enamelled Cross of Paschal I (817-824), an important staurotheca in embossed and gilded copper, which contained within it minute fragments of the Cross of Christ, and which became part of the Treasure placed by Leo III (795-816) in the oratory called Sancta Sanctorum in the Lateran. The Cross is made up of five panels, arranged in the shape of a Latin cross, on which seven episodes from the life of Jesus are depicted with lively enamel figures. In the upper panel are the Annunciation and the Visitation of Mary; in the centre panel is the Birth of Jesus; on the left is the Flight into Egypt and on the right is the Adoration of the Magi; and finally in the lower arm is the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple and the Baptism of Jesus. The panels are composed on a wooden base and presented in a glass case frame.

Oil on canvas. Central European school of the late 19th-early 20th century. Unidentified signature on the lower right. The landscape glimpse shows a countryside with coniferous woods, crossed by a stream and dominated by rocky peaks. The painting is presented in a golden frame from the early 20th century, with decorations and friezes.

Courtship Scene 1887

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower right, with additional inscription "Baden" (place?). The scene shows a young couple in 18th-century folk clothes, sitting on a bench under a flowering tree, along a country path: the boy is making the girl try playing the recorder, a nice courtship device. There are no biographical information about the artist, who is of German origin by name and place indicated. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. Genoese school of the 18th century. The countryside landscape sees a crumbling structure rising in the center, the ruins of a building through whose torn walls you can see the masses of white clouds in the background flowing; in front of it flows a stream, in which a woman is washing clothes, while her companion sits on a nearby rock, in line with the female figure and almost symmetrical with the female figure. The scene is characterized by a particular search for light, by a dynamism of forms (you can notice the directional continuity of the treetops with the roof of the ruin and the clouds) and by the theatricality of the figures, all elements that have defined the pictorial production of the Genoese Baroque. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.

Crayons on paper. At the bottom right there is a signature attributable to Andrea Favero (1837 -1914). It is a pleasant and delicate portrait of a little girl from a poor family, but dignified and proud of her hairdo. She poses outdoors, in front of a flat countryside. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. Central European School of the early 1900s. Signed R. Muller lower left. The composition, which evokes still lifes of the most ancient taste, offers a large variety of fruits (white and black grapes, oranges, pears, strawberries, small pumpkins) arranged in a basket and on a stand, on a uniform background. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. The painting is inspired by the pictorial methods of Francesco Foschi (1710 -1780), an artist who specialized in landscapes and who widely spread the taste for winter landscapes. In this painting we have a glimpse of a mountain landscape, with a village located in a valley beneath rocky and snow-capped peaks. Even the houses and meadows are sprinkled with snow, which is absent on the path traveled by numerous figures; the pink atmosphere of the sky evokes the beginning of a new day, already fervent with activity. The painting has been restored and relined. It is presented in a mid-20th century frame.