Donkey Sculpture Bronze Italy XX Century - Italy Mid 1900s approx

Thomas's disbelief

Lead glass, with hand painted polychrome glass. The scene from the Gospel is depicted in which Saint Thomas, after having doubted his Resurrection announced by the other disciples, recognizes Jesus who appears to him and asks him to touch his wounds on the Cross with his hand. The work has some slight breaks and some original glasses are missing, which have been replaced. It is mounted in a recent frame.

Oil painting on canvas. At the bottom right, on the back of a chair, there is a trace of an unidentified signature and probable name of the subject portrayed. The middle-aged man is well dressed in bourgeois but elegant clothes; he flaunts a self-confident, proud expression, and with his hand resting on the back of a chair, he makes a casual gesture that invites you to look at him. The painting is presented in a coeval frame.

Oil painting on canvas. At the bottom left there is an unidentified signature (Parravicini?). The hilly landscape, with sparse and low vegetation, is inhabited by a solitary brick farmhouse, squared and equally bare; above, to accentuate the atmosphere of solitude, a sky full of gray storm clouds. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. Singed S. Ronzoni at the bottom right. The artist painted a view over the harbour with small boats moored at the quay and sailors loading goods on their shoulders. The pictorial strokes are broad and uncontoured, the colours in a few ranges fading into each other to create a suspended atmosphere. The painting is presented in a stylish frame, with some faults.

Oil on canvas. Signed S. Ronzoni in the bottom right-hand corner. The foreshortening is set outside the village, near the small stream crossed by a small bridge; on the embankment on the right there is a covered market, populated by numerous figures, among which stands out in the foreground the female figure who, well closed in her coat with a red scarf, returns with a full purse. With broad brushstrokes and blurred outlines, the artist creates a pleasant scene divided into two parts, with the natural landscape on the left, dominated by the colours blue and green, and the environment of popular life, where the bright colours of the clothes stand out in patches against the grey and off-white tones. The painting is presented in a frame.

Oil on canvas. The painting celebrates the memory of a deceased person: it represents a tombstone with the name of the dead and the dates, laying on the bare ground in a desert landscape, faded with a sunset in the background, but surrounded by a garland of lively flowers. A white lily stands out from all, stretched out upwards, but with a broken stem, forcing the corolla to turn towards the ground: it is the "memento mori", the symbol of the transience of life. The beautiful painting is presented in a gilded coeval frame.

Woven from bark and decorated. Splendid example of art-craftsmanship, which refers to one of the most ancient methods to obtain clothes without resorting to weaving or weaving, but using the internal bark of certain species of trees. It’s a method that’s been practiced in Central Africa, in Southeast Asia, in Japan, in North America and from Mesoamerica to the Andes, to the Amazon and the Great Chaco regions. The term Tapa denotes in particular all the bark tissues of Oceania, but in reality it is a word native to Fiji. Depending on the area where these bark tissues are produced, different tree species are used: while in Africa the fig tree is used, in Indonesia and in the Pacific islands the bark most used is that of the paper mulberry tree, with which the highest quality fabrics are produced, which remain white and can be decorated in different ways. If once the bark fabric was worn daily, even simply wrapped around the body, over the centuries it has been replaced by cotton, but still today it is preferred to western fabrics for ritual and ceremonial occasions; above all, these fabrics continue to be important goods of exchange, gifts of value in occasions of births, birthdays, marriages (with exchanges between the relatives of the groom and those of the bride), funerals and ceremonial presentations to the royal family. Added to this is the production generated by the thriving tourist market of this fabric. The tapa presented here is decorated with repeated geometric motifs, which evoke the huts and the village road. The upper edge is not straight, but shaped with large triangular fringes. It is placed on a panel covered with a plexiglass case.

Lombard Landscape

Oil on board. Signed lower left. Considered one of the most poetic landscape painters of the 1900s, the Lombard painter Ambrogio Vismara transposed his love for his native places into his works, dedicating most of his life to the Lombard landscapes - the mountains, the plains, the hills of his native Brianza production, and evoking almost all of them in autumnal atmospheres and tones. His peculiarity was the use of the spatula instead of the brush, which allowed him to obtain an effect of tonal spots, with a clear contrast of planes. Here is a small glimpse of a pond, with Alpine peaks that can be glimpsed in the background, and which refer to the Lombard plain. Framed in style.

Caricatures of Gandusio and Melato

Tempera on paper. Signed at top right. Luigi Daniele Crespi was a painter, journalist and illustrator active in Rome from 1912 to 1940, of whom no other biographical information is available. Linked to the Futurist movement, he was also active in advertising posters and set design. His elegant caricatures and satirical drawings were published in many magazines and covers. In this drawing Crespi offers caricatures of two well-known show business personalities of the time, Antonio Gandusio (1875 - 1951), who was one of the most interesting Italian comic actors, both film and theatre, almost a commedia dell'arte mask, and Maria Melato (1885 - 1950), a theatre, radio and cinema actress. Framed.

Nude Concept

Crayons on paper. Signed lower right; further signature on the back, with the title. Delicate female nude, with soft colors, by the Venetian painter Eugenio Polesello, best known for his landscapes. In frame.