Couple of Paintings Oil on Canvas Northern Europe XVII-XVIII 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. 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.

Gallant Scene and Bucolic Scene

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

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 painting on canvas. Venetian school of the seventeenth century. The scene is full of figures and movement, and tells an episode of sacred history in a domestic guise. The little Maria, newborn, is in the center in the arms of the maids who are about to wash her, while her father Gioacchino looks at her with devotion; on the right a maid warms clothes by the fire in the fireplace, while on the top left other maidservants take care of the puerpera Sant'Anna. The scene is placed in a very large room, furnished with drapery, and which receives light from the small window at the top right. The work, created with good pictorial skills, is probably a preparatory sketch for a large canvas. The canvas has traces of restoration and relining. It is presented in a stylish frame.

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. 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.