Ancient Neoclassical Style Mirror Early XX Century Mahogany Wood - Italy early 20th century

Vecchia Ciociara 1910

Pastels on paper. Signed and dated lower right. On the back there is a cartouche with the title and label of the Bolzani Art Gallery in Milan. Antonio Mancini was a realist painter, trained at the Neapolitan school of Morelli and Palizzi and later in Paris. He mainly dedicated himself to portraiture and genre scenes of popular or anecdotal taste, but while in an initial period he was close to nineteenth-century naturalism which led him to portray popular figures permeated with sadness (his street urchins), in a subsequent period he began to experiment different techniques, resorting to vivid flashes of light, placed on the canvas in lumps of violent color and bright flows, even reaching the use of extra-pictorial materials, such as colored glass, and proposing agitated figures, sometimes in imaginative disguises, an expression of his forte mental distress. This drawing, which belongs to the later production, presents the face of an elderly woman, (Ciociara by title), depicted in profile and surrounded by splashes of color that create a nuanced and lively halo. The work is presented in a contemporary frame (with small defects).

Amarici (Etiopian Figures) 1930s

Pencil on paper. Signature, title and location lower right. In the second half of the 1930s, Contardo Barbieri left as a volunteer for the campaign in East Africa. From this period there are some works that propose oriental subjects, such as these characters of the Ethiopian people called Amharic because they were natives of Amhara, a region of central-northern Ethiopia where the city of Dessié is located. In frame.

The Nine Muses

Tapestry. The word Euterp appears at the bottom right. The enormous grass juice depicts the nine Muses, female Greek divinities, all sisters, as daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, and having the god Apollo as their guide. They represented the supreme ideal of Art, understood as the truth of the "Everything" or the "eternal magnificence of the divine". Initially considered in a generic way as divinities of song and joyous dances, responsible for putting into music and verse stories such as the origin of the world, the birth of gods and men, the exploits of Zeus, and often depicted accompanied by various musical instruments, starting from the Hellenistic era, all singing and musical expressions were associated with them, including sad and funeral ones, and other arts such as theatre, and each of them was associated with a specific genre of art, so that they could be invoked individually to exercise their inspiration and protection. The word "Euterp"refers to the name of one of them, Euterpe, muse of lyric poetry and music, traditionally depicted with a flute; but the name Euterpe etymologically means "She who cheers" who brings joy, and one can therefore think that the choice of this name to title the tapestry refers to the most ancient function of the Muses, those of bringers of joy through art. In this presentation, the muses appear dancing, dressed in veils and flowering branches; in their hands or placed next to them, instruments or other objects symbolizing the art that they inspire appear (both tragic and comic theatrical masks, the pictorial palette, various musical instruments...). The large painting has signs of wear and humidity stains.

Embroidery on cotton fabric. Japan, Meiji period (1868 -1912). The large panel in embroidered cotton fabric offers a naturalistic subject: eagles and other birds are depicted among stylized mountains, and pine and wisteria branches. The embroidery is presented in style frame.

Portraits of Children, 1930

Photographs retouched with pastels. Signed bottom right. On the back of three of them is the date 11 November 1930. A photographic sequence of the portrait of three children is shown, who slightly change their pose or expression. They are the work of the British photographer Eva Barrett who, after an initial experience as a painter, decided to dedicate herself to photography, thinking that "it was better to be a first-rate photographer than a second-rate [painter]. Having moved to Rome in 1913, she established her laboratory here. Pictorialist, with a small camera, Eva Barrett created her own photographic method that was reminiscent of drawing sketches: she applied a few very light pencil strokes, managing to create subdued images but with particularly dense blacks, thus maintaining the characteristics of photography and portraits. In this way he was very successful and his career took off. Eva Barrett photographed the Italian royal family, the wives and children of foreign ambassadors, as well as received numerous commissions from European royalty in Belgium, Sweden, Greece. The four portraits are presented in style frames.

Still Life with Game

Oil painting on canvas. Signed lower right. On the back, gallery cartouche with the data of the work. Alfio Paolo Graziani chose the faithful transposition of reality onto his canvases, creating almost hyper-realistic compositions due to the precision in reproducing the various materials and surfaces, as well as the effects of the light incident on them. Nicknamed "Prince of Flowers" for the abundant production of floral compositions, he also created landscapes, portraits and still lifes, such as the work presented here, which presents a hunter's corner, where the hunted prey is added, scattered disorderly on a support surface, the remains of the hunting trip (the rifle, the horn, some shells, the remains of some provisions). The work is presented in a contemporary frame.

Oil painting on canvas. At the bottom left there is an unidentified signature. Large composition of variegated flowers, placed outdoors on bare, deserted ground. The colors of the flowers are applied with a certain material consistency, making them stand out and emerge from the almost monochromatic background. The painting has some dirt splashes in the lower left corner. It is presented in a contemporary frame.

Crayons on cardboard. Signed Rossi lower left. Melancholic and ethereal portrait of a young woman, with a serious expression and lost in her thoughts, despite her elegant and graceful party dress. The work is presented in a contemporary frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Signed Bertolotti lower right. It offers a glimpse of a forest, with sparse, tall plants and an undergrowth full of rocks covered by a green lawn; through the trees, a gash opens up in the center, flooded with light, framing rugged mountain peaks. The painting, with a strong scenographic impact, is presented in a contemporary frame.

Man with Dog, 1962

Lithograph, numbered bottom left N.138/170, signed bottom right. Pisan painter and engraver, he achieved national recognition only when he became professor of engraving at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence in 1948, under the chair of Giovanni Fattori. Viviani was able to transfer his personal vision of the world into his engravings, through images that drew on the life of the Pisan coast, the land he loved and where he lived, dedicating himself to his other great passion, hunting. Presented in a plexiglass frame.

Oil painting on canvas. The composition looks at the productions of the 17th century and offers a table richly laden with fruit trays, baskets of cherries, baskets with peaches and bunches of grapes with decorative vine leaves, terrines with seeds, and glasses, surmounted by a curtain and placed on a fabric. Color was used in a highly material manner in some points, to underline for example the stems of grape leaves, or to create reflections of light on the fruit. The painting presented in a style frame.

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.