Mercury and Argus Oil on Wooden Table Italy XVIII Century

Oil painting on canvas. Central European school of the eighteenth century. Under a blue sky, a large, rather barren landscape is depicted, with the edge of a wood opening onto a rocky valley, with a river flowing between the rocks and snow-capped peaks in the background; in the foreground, scattered, some figures of shepherds with their flocks. On the stretcher at the back of the work, a cartouche refers to Poussin, the artist representing seventeenth-century classicism whose pictorial methods inspired the author of the painting. The painting, relined, is presented in a period frame.

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.

Oil on canvas. Central European School. The scene is set in the shop of a barber, who is intent on cutting a man's hair under the watchful eye of other customers and, above all, of some women with children, one of whom even observes the result of his work with glasses. Glasses were introduced in art first as a sign of distinction, and later also as a sign of scientific attention, progressively delineating the figure of the scholar, doctor and surgeon: in this painting, they actually underline the irony of the scene, and they are used as a tool for a close female examination of the spouse's haircut! The whole scene is filled with figures, painted in a crude and almost grotesque way, with very marked, almost theatrical expressions and poses, underlined as well by the bright colours. Due to these characteristics, the painting fits well into that production of genre scenes based on popular life captured in its most lively and characteristic moments, which originated in the seventeenth century in Central Europe, especially in the Netherlands, to replace naturalistic and religious painting with lighter subjects, and which in Italy found a particular expression in the "Bamboccianti School", developed in Rome by Flemish and Italian painters. The painting has been restored and relined. It is presented in an antique frame.

Oil on canvas. Central European school. The scene, set inside a tavern, depicts a fight between two men, who are held by the other patrons and by the innkeeper; on the table, next to the interrupted lunch, the cards of the game that sparked the quarrel. The whole scene is filled with figures, painted in a raw and almost grotesque way, with very pronounced, almost theatrical expressions and poses, underlined even more by the bright colours. Due to these characteristics, the painting fits well into that production of genre scenes based on popular life captured in its most lively and characteristic moments, which started in the seventeenth century in Central Europe, especially in the Netherlands, to replace naturalistic and religious painting with lighter subjects, and which in Italy found a particular expression in the "Bamboccianti School", developed in Rome by Flemish and Italian painters. The painting has been restored and relined. It 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.

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 canvas. French school of the seventeenth-eighteenth century. The external scene is divided into two strongly contrasting parts: on the left, on the dark and gloomy background of a rocky wall, there are some ancient ruins, bases and fragments of columns with fallen damaged statues; on the right instead, against the background of a blue sky and gray from the clouds, the mountainous landscape opens onto a path, from which some figures emerge, a lively woman carrying a laundry basket and holding a child by the hand, a wanderer with his bundle of shoulders. It seems a metaphor between the past, now dead and dark, and the present, alive and lively. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in an early 20th century frame.