Family Portrait Oil on Canvas Italy 1856

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.

View with Ruins

Watercolor on paper. Signed lower right. Salomon Corrodi established himself as a landscape painter, creating a large production of views especially of the Roman countryside, but also of the Amalfi coast, Naples, the Ligurian Riviera, which was widely successful throughout Europe. He preferred the watercolor technique. The painting has traces of breakage, to be restored. The work is presented in a period frame.

Oil on wooden board. Signed lower right. These are three small paintings proposing landscape glimpses, made in the naturalistic style typical of Lorenzo Gignous: the two lateral ones, measuring 24 x 30 cm, propose the most recurring subject in the Lombard artist's production, i.e. glimpses of Lake Maggiore, animated by fishing boats; in the center a smaller landscape (18 x 25 cm) with a group of trees in the countryside. The three small paintings are presented in a single coeval frame.

Composed of woodblocked sheets, sewn together and partly colored, with matching figures and texts. The group consists of 23 booklets, of which two in three copies and one in four copies; another couple has the same cover but different contents. The booklets can be considered as "manga" of the nineteenth century: the word "manga" still today can designate many different productions, such as single cartoons, scattered drawings, more elaborate illustrations, comic strips, comic books, as well as animated drawings. Therefore, starting from the assumption that there is no "manga form" but different ways of conceiving objects and graphic forms all denominated with this word, the term manga can be attested in literary and essayistic use in Japan as early as the eighteenth century to indicate, as mentioned above, drawings and sketches. But it is from the first half of the nineteenth century that Katsushika Hokusai's 15 volumes of illustrations, studies, graphic entertainment and detailed bichromatic prints became established, thanks to the progressive publication, starting from 1814. If, on the other hand, we want to give the word the more specific meaning of “stories drawn in sequence”, then the debut must be placed in the second half of the nineteenth century, similarly to what happened in Europe and the United States for comics. The booklets are in good condition.

Pastoral Scenes

Oil on panel. Decorated with pastoral scenes on a monochromatic light green background, with couples, children, farmers depicted during moments of rest and conversation, in the guise of the models from the 18th century. Probably wooden panels from the doors of furniture, the paintings have been recently mounted on wooden frames. They present some paint losses and spots, especially where the background is.

Oil painting on canvas. Of a bucolic and serene flavor, the scene set in the countryside on the edge of the village that can be glimpsed on the left, sees a woman and her son who, near a stream, await the shepherd with his flock with a lunch basket . Restored and relined, the painting is presented in an antique 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 painting on canvas. The Holy Family is depicted with Mary and Joseph who, converging one hundredth with their heads close together, frame the Child Jesus, intent on playing with a lamb, the iconographic symbol of the sacrificial victim, therefore a prelude to the Passion, together with the small Cross that the child holds in one hand. The inscription anno 1845 appears at the top right, an indication of the period probably added during the subsequent restoration phase. In fact, the work has been restored and relined. It is presented in a stylish frame.