Antique Basement Renaissance Italy First Half of 1500s

The Nine Muses

Tapestry. The word Euterp appears at the bottom right. The enormous grass juice depicts the nine Muses, female Greek divinities, all sisters, as daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, and having the god Apollo as their guide. They represented the supreme ideal of Art, understood as the truth of the "Everything" or the "eternal magnificence of the divine". Initially considered in a generic way as divinities of song and joyous dances, responsible for putting into music and verse stories such as the origin of the world, the birth of gods and men, the exploits of Zeus, and often depicted accompanied by various musical instruments, starting from the Hellenistic era, all singing and musical expressions were associated with them, including sad and funeral ones, and other arts such as theatre, and each of them was associated with a specific genre of art, so that they could be invoked individually to exercise their inspiration and protection. The word "Euterp"refers to the name of one of them, Euterpe, muse of lyric poetry and music, traditionally depicted with a flute; but the name Euterpe etymologically means "She who cheers" who brings joy, and one can therefore think that the choice of this name to title the tapestry refers to the most ancient function of the Muses, those of bringers of joy through art. In this presentation, the muses appear dancing, dressed in veils and flowering branches; in their hands or placed next to them, instruments or other objects symbolizing the art that they inspire appear (both tragic and comic theatrical masks, the pictorial palette, various musical instruments...). The large painting has signs of wear and humidity stains.

Oil painting on canvas. Northern European school of the 18th century. The allegorical scene presents a scantily clad woman sitting on a man's lap, near a table set with a jug, a chalice, a snuffbox and a lit cigar. The two characters are in an attitude of playful complicity, both intent on smoking a long pipe. The background offers a leafy landscape. The figures and objects refer to the material and carnal pleasures of life, smoking, drinking, female company; the rosy and plump characters also recall the pleasure of good food. These subjects were recurrent in Flemish or more generally Nordic painting, which proposed them in an ironic and alluring way. The painting, restored and relined, is presented in a period frame.

Embroidery on cotton fabric. Japan, Meiji period (1868 -1912). The large panel in embroidered cotton fabric offers a naturalistic subject: eagles and other birds are depicted among stylized mountains, and pine and wisteria branches. The embroidery is presented in style frame.

Oil painting on canvas. This is a small copy of Titian's work of the same name, created around 1532 and today preserved in the Louvre Museum. Originally it was thought that the work portrayed Alfonso d'Avalos, marquis of Vasto, bidding farewell to his wife before going to fight the Turks. Instead, it is more likely a prototype of a matrimonial allegory that enjoyed widespread success in Venice. The spouses are represented in the guise of Mars (in armour) and Venus, and are accompanied by Cupid, protector deity of love, who holds a bundle of arrows, by Vesta, goddess of the domestic hearth, crowned with myrtle, symbol of marital fidelity , and by Hymenaeus, divinity of weddings who offers a basket of fruit and flowers. The woman holds a crystal ball, as if she wanted to peer into the future. The melancholic expressions of the protagonists have been read as a reference to the possible death or departure of one of the two spouses. The painting is presented in a contemporary frame.

Oil painting on canvas. The painting portrays the face of an elderly saint, holding a lily in his hand, a symbol of purity, while reading a large book, presumably a sacred text. It is presumably a representation of Saint Joseph: if tradition usually has him represented with Baby Jesus in his arms, starting from the Renaissance Joseph began to also be depicted absorbed in reading a book, in the guise of a "philosopher", or a man who drew the wisdom of knowing how to make right and wise choices from reading sacred texts. The work is presented in a contemporary frame.

Oil on wooden board. The small glimpse represents a wooded glimpse, leafy and shaded, in which various figurines stroll and enjoy themselves. The signature AJ Garnier appears at the bottom center, which refers to the French artist Alfred Jean Garnier (1848 -1908), enameller, painter and engraver. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil painting on canvas. The two still lifes propose compositions of objects placed on wooden tables covered with damask fabrics and surmounted by draped curtains. Among the objects depicted in both scenes there are musical scores, in one case also a flute, and glasses of particular shapes, filled with wine, flanked by embossed metal jugs. Some books, a pomegranate and a crystal vase with flowers in a painting also appear; a plate of cherries with a ceramic cup, a lemon and a branch of raspberries in the other canvas. The two works are presented in gilded frames from the early 1900s.

Portraits of Children, 1930

Photographs retouched with pastels. Signed bottom right. On the back of three of them is the date 11 November 1930. A photographic sequence of the portrait of three children is shown, who slightly change their pose or expression. They are the work of the British photographer Eva Barrett who, after an initial experience as a painter, decided to dedicate herself to photography, thinking that "it was better to be a first-rate photographer than a second-rate [painter]. Having moved to Rome in 1913, she established her laboratory here. Pictorialist, with a small camera, Eva Barrett created her own photographic method that was reminiscent of drawing sketches: she applied a few very light pencil strokes, managing to create subdued images but with particularly dense blacks, thus maintaining the characteristics of photography and portraits. In this way he was very successful and his career took off. Eva Barrett photographed the Italian royal family, the wives and children of foreign ambassadors, as well as received numerous commissions from European royalty in Belgium, Sweden, Greece. The four portraits are presented in style frames.