Crucifix Bronze Eastern Europe XIX Century

Oil painting on canvas. At the bottom signed Cornienti and dated 1844; on the reverse writing attributing to Cherubino Cornienti. It is not possible to confirm this attribution to the important nineteenth-century painter, an exponent of Romanticism who produced portraits, historical scenes but also various religious subjects. The work presented here proposes the Gospel episode of the Resurrection of Lazarus, with an oriental setting suited to the subject. The restored and relined work is presented in a period frame.

Oil painting on canvas. On the back there is a scroll with an old attribution to Hubert Robert (1733 -1808), a French painter who traveled in Italy bringing back various picturesque views and glimpses, populated by architectural ruins. In this work, the glimpse of a hilly countryside is set in a village with farmhouses and a fountain in the centre, in the midst of which however there are also classical architectural ruins: in the center three columns of a temple, further on the left the ruins of an amphitheater. Several popular figurines wander among the structures. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a frame.

Under glass painting. The work appears to be composed of an engraving applied to the glass and painted on the back. Saint Peter the Apostle is depicted, intent on prayer and listening to the divine voice that comes from the open heavens above him; according to traditional iconography Peter has with him a bunch of keys, a sign of his investiture as the first head of the church, and a cockerel, which instead recalls the episode of Jesus' denial: Christ had predicted to him that during his Passion, before the rooster had crowed, Peter would have denied him three times, and so it was.

Oil on canvas. It probably depicts a tragic anti-Semitic event. On the right, a wounded soldier in Russian uniform is witnessing the dramatic scene of a slaughtered family while the rabbi is preying for them. The broken window and the upside down drawers make clear that the killers broke into the house. On the left of the mirror, there is a Jewish writing that may suggest the location. The word may be translated as 'Ciro' and may be referring to the areas of Georgia and Azerbaijan near the Kura (river flowing from Turkey to the Caspian Sea, known as 'Ciro' in 1800s). The painting, restored and relined, is presented in a frame of the 1800s.

Crayons on cardboard. Elegant portrait of a young lady, with a floral garland like a necklace. Presented in a contemporary golden frame.

Stable interior

Oil painting on canvas. Signed lower left. The work was previously acquired at the Sotheby's auction in Milan on 10/12/2007. It was exhibited in 1991 in the exhibition "Giovanni Sottocornola. Images from a collection" held in Milan at the Silbernagl Gallery. After an initial pictorial phase dedicated to portraits and still lifes, in the 1880s Giovanni Sottocornola approached social themes, which were becoming the favorite subjects of young Lombard painters attentive to the poorest aspects of society, linked to the adoption of original artistic techniques. Sottocornola embraced the practice of pointillist painting, of which he wrote in 1895 "For now it is certain, I am convinced that there is no other painting more capable of conveying certain sensations than this one". However, this type of painting remained entirely focused on light, on its uncertain tonal vibrations, as happens in the Interior of a stable, created towards the end of the 1980s, where the plays of light and shadow play and create the effects visual in the brushstrokes of color played on a few chromatic ranges, those of browns, expressed in a wide variety of shades. The work is presented in a period frame.

Maria Dolente

Marble bas-relief. Engraved signature along the left margin. Born in Cannobbio (on Lake Maggiore), Giulio Branca was introduced to the art by the Cannobio sculptor Bergonzoli, and later attended G. Strazza's school of nude drawing and sculpture at the Brera Academy. Born in Cannobio on 13 December 1850 to Ludovico, he was introduced to art by the Cannobio sculptor Bergonzoli, and attended the school of the nude and G. Strazza's school of sculpture at the Brera Academy. He made about four hundred sculptures, including memorials, funerary monuments and portrait busts. Branca also took part, following a competition, in the completion of the high wall of the cathedral of Como, which had remained unfinished for centuries, sculpting several figures in white marble for the façade and the altar between 1897 and 1900. The work presented here is a bas-relief showing a half-bust of the grieving Madonna flanked by two pious women. It is presented in a coeval wooden frame from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.