Neoclassical Frame Mahogany Italy XVIII Century - Piedmont Last quarter of the 18th century

Oil painting on canvas. Northern Italian school of the eighteenth century. The landscape, set on the banks of a wide river, sees in the center some figures of peasants intent on picking fruit from a tree: a girl holds the ladder while the boy cuts off a bunch, on the left another couple places the fruit collected in a tub. All around a vast green countryside and some farmhouses. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. The landscape shows a very green countryside, crossed centrally by a watercourse on whose bank, in the foreground, a herd of cattle is watering; in the centre, on the opposite bank, a farmhouse surrounded by greenery, and in the background, blue-coloured peaks under a sky with pink clouds. As is recurrent in 18th century landscape painting, one finds here a bucolic atmosphere of serenity and peace, generated by nature. The painting, restored and retouched, is presented in a lath frame.

Oil on canvas. This is a traditional depiction of the event of Jesus' death on the Cross, with his mother Mary and the beloved disciple at the foot of the Cross, contemplating the dying Christ; in the background the city of Jerusalem. Very essential in its depiction, and static in the positions of the evangelical figures, the scene emphasises the drama with a sombre background, although a light opens up high above Christ to announce divine participation in the event. The painting, which has already been retouched, shows some minor colour fading.

Oil on canvas. Italian school of the 18th century. The left field of the scene is occupied by a large ruined architectural structure, a vestige of the past. On the right, with blue mountains in the background, overlooking a town, a wide river flows through the wooded countryside, crossed by a small bridge over which two figures of travellers pass. The painting is part of the broad production that was widely in vogue, especially between the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century, which took the name of Architectural Capriccio, a genre defined as the art of composing the landscape through the free combination of real or fantastic architectural elements, reworked ruins of antiquity, figures and macchiettas, according to a variety of declinations ranging from the grotesque to the visionary, from the picturesque to the elegiac. Restored and reworked, the painting is presented in a stylish frame.

Oil on canvas. Northern Italian School of the 18th century. The broad landscape shows in the centre a herdsman who has just passed with his cattle over the small bridge over the stream, which flows through the wooded countryside; in the background, again in the centre, a farmhouse and several country buildings. Restored and retouched, the painting is presented in a stylish frame.

Oil on canvas. From a private collection in which they were combined as a pendant, the two compositions are actually different in manufacturing and technique, as well as in the size of the canvases. The slightly larger canvas (71 x 91 cm), in oil, features two different wicker baskets filled with white and red grapes, surrounded by other fruit (pears and peaches) and with a curious squirrel sniffing the air; the dark background is empty. The second canvas (64 x 88 cm) is made with the lean oil technique, which makes it very close for pictorial effect to a tempera on canvas; the composition is made up of variegated flowers and fruit (watermelon, grapes, peaches), and is placed in an external environment, albeit not very defined (the clouds on the left). Both canvases need cleaning; the first shows traces of previous restoration and relining (patch on the back), while the second, in her very worn first canvas, has very widespread small holes and drops of color. Both works are presented in white lacquered frames, albeit different in shape.

Oil painting on canvas. Northern European school of the eighteenth century. A plate on the frame attributes the work to Meindert Hobbema (1638 -1709) one of the greatest Dutch landscape painters. While not confirming the attribution, we appreciate the good pictorial quality of the tree-lined landscape, enlivened by figurines and with a charming cottage that stands out in the centre, where the play of light and shadow created by the sun between the branches of the trees stands out. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a mid-1900s frame.

Paper engravings. Five are from drawings by Giuseppe Zocchi (1711-1767) and the other five are from drawings by Jacopo Amigoni (1682-1752). They all depict episodes from the Old Testament, with different characters and episodes. Of Zocchi there are scenes from the life of Tobias, of Jephthah, of Moses (the burning bush), of Hagar and of Lot. Of Amigoni, scenes from the life of Jacob, of David with Abigail, of Abraham and two others of Moses (Moses saved from the waters and Moses defending the daughters of Jerus at the well). The German Joseph Wagner trained as a painter in Venice, in the workshop of the Rococo painter Jacopo Amigoni, who invited him to devote himself to copper burin engraving. In 1739 he founded the Wagnerian chalcography in Venice, which quickly became the most important print production center of the Serenissima; his workshop was very popular with many Venetian etchers (Volpato, Brustolon, Piranesi to name a few). In the prolific workshop, the most talented engravers active at the time were employed in the creation of hundreds of prints reproducing all kinds of the variegated eighteenth-century lagoon figurative culture, creating works of a high quality level, in which they immediately played a leading role the prints taken from prototypes of Amigoni, The revived scenes are of Rococo taste, set in landscapes dominated by a gentle nature and embellished by the presence of ancient ruins, and inserted in graceful rocaille frames. The engravings show slight gore of humidity. They are presented in contemporary gilded frames, with period glasses.

Oil on canvas. The floral composition is part of the large production of this subject that spread in Italy and Europe starting from the seventeenth century, with purely decorative purposes. The painting proposed here has traces of previous restorations and has been relined, but needs further cleaning. It is presented in an antique relacquered frame.

Gallant Scene and Bucolic Scene

Matching paintings on leather representing a gallant scene and a bucolic scene. Styled frames.