Ancient Painting Virgin Mary Bolognese School '600 Oil on Canvas

Oil painting on canvas. Northern European school of the eighteenth century. A plate on the frame attributes the work to Meindert Hobbema (1638 -1709) one of the greatest Dutch landscape painters. While not confirming the attribution, we appreciate the good pictorial quality of the tree-lined landscape, enlivened by figurines and with a charming cottage that stands out in the centre, where the play of light and shadow created by the sun between the branches of the trees stands out. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a mid-1900s frame.

Paper engravings. Five are from drawings by Giuseppe Zocchi (1711-1767) and the other five are from drawings by Jacopo Amigoni (1682-1752). They all depict episodes from the Old Testament, with different characters and episodes. Of Zocchi there are scenes from the life of Tobias, of Jephthah, of Moses (the burning bush), of Hagar and of Lot. Of Amigoni, scenes from the life of Jacob, of David with Abigail, of Abraham and two others of Moses (Moses saved from the waters and Moses defending the daughters of Jerus at the well). The German Joseph Wagner trained as a painter in Venice, in the workshop of the Rococo painter Jacopo Amigoni, who invited him to devote himself to copper burin engraving. In 1739 he founded the Wagnerian chalcography in Venice, which quickly became the most important print production center of the Serenissima; his workshop was very popular with many Venetian etchers (Volpato, Brustolon, Piranesi to name a few). In the prolific workshop, the most talented engravers active at the time were employed in the creation of hundreds of prints reproducing all kinds of the variegated eighteenth-century lagoon figurative culture, creating works of a high quality level, in which they immediately played a leading role the prints taken from prototypes of Amigoni, The revived scenes are of Rococo taste, set in landscapes dominated by a gentle nature and embellished by the presence of ancient ruins, and inserted in graceful rocaille frames. The engravings show slight gore of humidity. They are presented in contemporary gilded frames, with period glasses.

Les Gueux, 1622 (complete series)

Etchings. This is the complete series of 25 engravings on paper of the "Beggars" (Les Gueux), made by the French engraver in Nancy, and widely reproduced for the popularity it obtained; Rembrandt, who owned a collection of Callot's prints, was inspired by them for his beggar figures. Beggars or commoners of Italian origin are depicted (Callot drew them in Italy) who symbolize the poverty and the wounds of the human condition. The engravings have not been signed by the author, but have been numbered; only the first engraving, which portrays a very humble character carrying a flag with the words "Captain De Baroni", and which also represents the title page of the collection, shows the name of the painter and engraver. The whole series is presented in frames in style.

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. Lombard school of the eighteenth century. An almost garland-like composition of variegated flowers, which occupy the entire pictorial field, against a dark background from which they emerge by themselves, without any other furnishing element. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a frame in the early 1900s style.

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. 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.

Oil on canvas. French school of the seventeenth century. The scene, set at night in the garden of a villa, of which you can glimpse the ornate facade on the right and in which the fountain gushing with cherubs stands out, under a dark sky and further obscured by heavy clouds, proposes two figures who entertain each other in conversation : an elderly modestly dressed is sternly admonishing a seated young man, richly dressed, who seems instead to make the gesture of mea culpa with his hand. The physiognomy and the gestures of the two characters, together with the style of the clothes, would refer to the philosopher Aristotle who was called to the court of Macedon to be the tutor of the young Alexander, the future king then known as Alexander the Great: according to what Plutarch recounts in his “Parallel Lives”, the young Alexander was a brilliant pupil, so much so that he was also initiated into the most profound and esoteric Aristotelian doctrines, from which derives the aura of mystery and profound interiority that shines through in the work presented here. The painting has been restored and relined. It is presented in a stylish frame. The painting, restored

Oil on canvas. The composition is not a traditional still life because the fruit (grapes and apples) and the bird are inserted in a large landscape, as its added elements in the foreground; Behind them opens a verdant countryside with a village on the hill. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.

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.