Matching Paintings on Leather 18th Century - Gallant Scene and Bucolic Scene

Oil on canvas. It is a counterpart copy of the original attributed to Francesco Solimena (1657 -1747) and kept as a canvas of the same size in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj in Rome, and traditionally considered a preparatory sketch for a fresco. This copy, from the material analysis, can be dated to the mid-18th century. The allegory, inscribed in an oval, represents a seated female figure who with her left hand holds the model of an architectural building, helped by a putto, while with the other hand she indicates a crown and a tiara, resting on a base which bears the name Europa. Around her are other cherubs, different objects, and a horse. The painting shows signs of restoration and relining.

Oil on canvas. Lombard school of the eighteenth century. An almost garland-like composition of variegated flowers, which occupy the entire pictorial field, against a dark background from which they emerge by themselves, without any other furnishing element. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a frame in the early 1900s style.

Oil on canvas. The two paintings, certainly similar in terms of subject type and pictorial methods, offer two landscape glimpses typical of the 17th and 18th Nordic production. They feature large countryside spaces near watercourses and inhabited by farmhouses. There are figures of peasants and commoners focusing on their work. The blue mountains in the background, preceded by gentle hills and surrmounted by a blue sky with white clouds. They had been previously relined and restored and they both show color spots and opacity. They feature a contemporary frame.

A Sacrifice to Venus

Watercolor on paper. At the bottom left the name Giuseppe Cades, Although on the back, in addition to the attribution, the title "The oath of the Vestal Virgin". A girl is offering garlands of flowers to the statue of the goddess Venus, traditionally painted in a discrete way. She's holding the veil with one hand to cover the loins. The other hand covers the breast and the head with the hair gathered and adorned with flowers. Behind the girl, a young woman watches the scene, while a third peers from behind the column of the temple: therefore it seems to be a scene of supplication to the goddess, asking her to favor the love of two young men: according to both Greek and Roman tradition, the young before the wedding woman devoted themselves to this goddess, which was considered as the protector of marriage and conjugal fidelity. The work seems to be very close to the production of Giuseppe Cades, who in the 1780s and 1790s became one of the best known and appreciated personality in the Roman artistic world. He was a draftsman and an engraver too. The work is framed

Sant'Antonio Abate e San Paolo l'Eremita

Oil on canvas. It is a large Nordic landscape, dominated by rocky peaks on the left and a lake with a central island on the right; in the foreground some figures that tell the legend of San Paolo Eremita, on the left, and Sant'Antonio abate, on the right with a centaur. The Golden Legend of Jacopo da Varagine tells that Saint Anthony the Abbot visited Paul the hermit, who for forty years had lived in solitude fed by a crow who brought him bread every day. Sant'Antonio asked for news from a centaur, who also in this scene shows him the way to follow with his arm. The restored and relined work is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. Italian School. The scene, full of figures, depicts the Holy Family walking towards Egypt, guided by an Angel and assisted by other angels above. The figures are inserted in a typical Italian landscape, they are depicted in a very earthly dimension: the Child, even with a halo, sleeps peacefully in His Mother's hands; Mary, who is wearing an unusual pilgrim's hat, met her husband's Joseph gaze, who is reassuring her with a sweet gesture - he is putting a hand on her knee-, while he is talking with the Angel who is showing them the way. Relined, the painting has some paint losses that need restoration. It is in an adapted frame, from the late '800 - early '900.

Oil on canvas. Delicate and accurate composition dedicated to the "drama" of the sea and of the storms: some sail boat with people are at the mercy of the high waves that are threatening to crush them agains the rocks. The types of figures and their making are close to Francesco Guardi's style a venetian painter from 18th century that was famous for his paintings full of imaginary, contemplative and sentimental atmoshepes. The original canvas had been restored.

Oil on canvas. Center-Italian School. The Saitn from Assisi is represented while contemplating the Crucifix as he was traditionally portraited, itinerant in the Umbrian countryside. The painting had already been restored but need to be clean. Displayed in an ancient frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Northern Italian school of the 18th century. A peculiarity of this scene is the presentation of the characters concentrated in the lower part of the canvas, while in the upper one dominates on the left the great architectural structure, which is meant to be the cave, but which is a tall and imposing wooden structure, flanked on the right by the darkness of the night, interrupted by the gap of light opened in the heavens, from which the angels come out. The characters are willing to converge, along an oblique line ascending to the left, in the direction of the Holy Family, in particular towards Mary and the Child, who are on the same diagonal as the celestial beam of light. On the right of the Holy Family, the Magi, with their retinue of servants and animals, behind which opens a landscape that evokes the distant lands from which they come. The painting is also animated by the play of colors and lights, with alternating lights and shadows, bright colors and dark backgrounds. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a beautiful gilded frame from the end of the 19th century.

Rest on the Flight into Egypt

Oil painting on canvas. XVIII -XIX century. The sacred theme in this scene takes on a familiar connotation, full of very earthly tenderness and intimacy: in an almost exotic context, which evokes an oasis in the desert for palm trees and a spring of water in a barren and hilly landscape. bare, Joseph and Mary sit to rest during their flight to Egypt, to escape the persecution of Herod; the mother tenderly holds baby Jesus on her knees, looks at him tenderly and swaddles him, while Joseph observes them pleased and relaxed. The whole scene is characterized by the dominance of brown-ocher colors, from which only Maria's dress differs, in her traditional blue and red colors; in the background, a clear sky in the colors of a dawn that has just dawned, with shades of pink. The canvas was applied on a new frame from the mid-1900s and placed in a frame from the same period, which has some shortcomings.

Oil on the table. Northern Italian (Venetian?) School of the 18th century. The shape of the table suggests that the painting was part of a furnishing set, inserted in a composite wall structure together with other mythological-allegorical scenes. The painting represents a mythological episode narrated in Ovid's Metamorphoses: Mercury prepares to put Argus to sleep with the persuasive melodies of his flute, and then kills him at the command of Jupiter. Argos, the shepherd with a hundred eyes and endowed with great strength, had been commissioned by Juno to watch over the young Io, loved by Jupiter and transformed by him into a heifer. In this representation, placed within a bucolic landscape, Mercury can be identified with his hat and winged shoes, while playing his flute, and Argus sitting watching the white heifer behind him: as in many representations of this myth, also in works of great fame, Argo is depicted as a simple shepherd, without a hundred eyes and without special gifts. The bucolic rather than dramatic dimension underlines the decorative intent of the panel, which seeks to evoke lightness rather than pathos. The work is in good condition.

Oil on canvas. Italian school of the seventeenth century. The scene of traditional Christian iconography is very lively and lively, very rich in figures, details and colors: in the center the three figures of the Magi, who pay homage to the Baby Jesus, moved to the left with the Holy Family, while at right there is all the rich suite of the three kings, with gifts. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame, with shortcomings.