Holy Subject Oil on Canvas Italy XVII Century

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. Center-Italian School. Typical dynamic scene of baroque taste focused on the figures of the Virgin Mary and the Child surounded by other adoring figures: on the right there is Saint Joseph , on the left two shepherds and on top an array of angels incensing, The painting, already restored, shows small drops of color. Displayed in 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. Italian School. Still life with fruit (watermelon, pears, peaches and pomegranates) and vegetables (pumpkin, califlowers) standing on a surface; on the right there is the ladder of a hemhouse with an hem inside. The painting needs to be cleaned and restore because of some drops of color. Revival frame.

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.

Gallant Scene and Bucolic Scene

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

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 painting on canvas. At the top right are the name of the man portrayed and his age, 78 years old. The man's habit and the attitude of prayer, in front of the Crucifix, with the meditation book in his hand, identify him as a prelate. The surname Albertoni is widely spread in Italy, in various families that started from Lombardy to extend to Parma and then to Rome. The painting, restored and relined, is presented in a period frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Italian school of the seventeenth century. Born in Alexandria in Egypt in about 344, Maria Egiziaca was an Egyptian nun and hermit, venerated as a saint by the Catholic, Orthodox and Coptic Churches. After a dissolute youth, Mary arrived in Jerusalem following a group of pilgrims and here she converted to the Christian faith, beginning a life of penance in the desert. In the iconography she is depicted as a penitent near a cave with long hair covering her body and with the three loaves that she took to the desert. The painting, restored and relined, is presented in a 19th century gilded frame.

Oil on canvas. The scene refers to the myth of Cupid and Psyche, the two protagonists of a well-known story narrated by Apuleius in his work The Metamorphoses. Psyche, a mortal with a beauty equal to Venus, becomes the wife of Cupid-Cupid without however knowing who her husband is, who appears to her only in the darkness of the night. Discovering her identity at the instigation of her envious sisters, she is forced, before being able to reunite with her divine consort, to carry out a series of tests, at the end of which she will obtain immortality. The myth has been widely re-proposed over the centuries, both in painting and in sculptural art, just remember the famous sculptural group of Canova. In this painting, the two lovers delight in their amorous games in a patch of green adorned with a fountain and a lapwing, in the company of two cupids playing; on the right we can see, hidden, a faun spying on the couple. The canvas, already relined, has a hole in the center, in correspondence with Psyche's arm, a slight tear in the upper left and small drops of color. It is presented in an adapted 19th century frame.