Antique Painting with Forest Landscape Oil on Canvas XIX Century

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.

Oil painting on canvas. On the back there is a vintage cartouche with the writing in French "Academic landscape; The bath of the nymphs disturbed by satyrs" and attribution to Hippolyte Lebrun (French painter working in Italy during the first half of the 19th century). The large scene is framed, like a backdrop, from inside a rocky cave in the middle of a green and shady valley. A river flows in it to form pools of water, in which a group of nymphs bathes, disturbed by some satyrs, who chase them and threaten them. The scene actually has a very playful character, like a mischievous entertainment between the different characters. The figures, small compared to the landscape, are an added component, which enhances its character of serenity and pleasure; the reference to classical culture is in keeping with the period of neoclassicism. The painting shows traces of restoration. It is offered in a stylish frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Northern European school of the late 19th century. Unidentified signature lower right. The portrait presents a child in a maritime context: he is sitting on a rock on a beach, by the sea, he is dressed like a sailor and is holding a small toy sailing ship in his hand. The child is rather prim and serious. The painting has slight tears in the canvas and color stains. It is presented in an imposing late 19th century frame, with several missing and damaged plaster decorations.

The Joachim Quartet 1904

Etching. Signed lower right; additional signature and date on the top corner of the sheet music. This is a famous portrait taken by the Viennese photographer and engraver Ferdinand Schmutzer, of the musical quartet directed by maestro Joseph Joachim (1831 -1907), famous Hungarian violinist, composer and conductor. Among the famous portraits painted by Schmutzer are those of Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and Richard Strauss. The work is presented in a frame.

Stable interior

Oil painting on canvas. Signed lower left. The work was previously acquired at the Sotheby's auction in Milan on 10/12/2007. It was exhibited in 1991 in the exhibition "Giovanni Sottocornola. Images from a collection" held in Milan at the Silbernagl Gallery. After an initial pictorial phase dedicated to portraits and still lifes, in the 1880s Giovanni Sottocornola approached social themes, which were becoming the favorite subjects of young Lombard painters attentive to the poorest aspects of society, linked to the adoption of original artistic techniques. Sottocornola embraced the practice of pointillist painting, of which he wrote in 1895 "For now it is certain, I am convinced that there is no other painting more capable of conveying certain sensations than this one". However, this type of painting remained entirely focused on light, on its uncertain tonal vibrations, as happens in the Interior of a stable, created towards the end of the 1980s, where the plays of light and shadow play and create the effects visual in the brushstrokes of color played on a few chromatic ranges, those of browns, expressed in a wide variety of shades. The work is presented in a period frame.

Landscape with Figures and Bread Oven

Oil painting on canvas. Signed lower left. The landscape view shows in the foreground a mountain path that leads to a bread oven, where a woman prepares the bundles of wood for the fire, while a traveler approaches on the back of a donkey; in the valley the viaduct over the river that leads to the village, surmounted by other barren peaks. Micheroux, belonging to the Posillipo school, or the nineteenth-century school of Neapolitan artists dedicated to landscape painting, created several glimpses of the Campania hinterland, but little is left of his production and little is known about his life. The painting has some small drops of color. It is presented in a late 19th century frame.

Oil painting on canvas. North European school of the 19th century. The romantic taste pervades this nocturnal landscape, illuminated by the light of the full moon, barely veiled by scattered thin clouds; on the country path, which runs alongside the torrential course of a river, two figures of wayfarers can be glimpsed, a child holding a woman's hand. The painting is presented in a gilded frame from the end of the 19th century.

Oil painting on canvas. Spanish school of the late 18th century. The biblical episode narrated in the book of Exodus is told in which little Moses, to escape the massacre of the children of Israel ordered by Pharaoh, is left by his mother in a basket on the banks of the Nile, where Pharaoh's daughter went to bathe . Having found him, she decided to save him and then raised him as a son at her court. The episode has been widely used as a pictorial subject, due to the suggestion of the theme: the scene full of characters sees in the center the princess daughter of the Pharaoh of Egypt, surrounded by all her entourage, who looks and welcomes with the gesture of the hand tense little Moses, who takes it from the basket on the left, leans hungrily towards the breast of the woman behind him, the nurse ready to breastfeed him. The scene is placed in a Nordic landscape contemporary with the painting, just as the figures wear 18th century clothes, except for the princess who sports an oriental-style headdress with a diadem. Her figure stands out for the bright color of the dress, just as the rosy complexion of the naked child stands out, which imposes itself on the duller and darker colors of the women in the entourage. The painting has been restored and relined.

Oil painting on canvas. The painting offers a half-length portrait of a young man who, in deshabillé, is lighting his pipe by drawing fire with a stick from the candle placed in front of him, on the table where a sword is also placed: perhaps it is a young knight in a moment of rest. It is precisely the candle, the only source of light in the scene, which suggests that the artist looked to the production of Georges De La Tour (1593 -1652), the French painter of the Caravaggio style who established himself for his "nocturnal" scenes, characterized by figures, usually low-ranking people rather than historical models or high-ranking figures, illuminated by the light of a candle, to create a special atmosphere of intimacy. The painting, restored and relined, is presented in a period frame.

Oil painting on canvas. The scene tells the biblical episode of the book of Exodus in which little Moses, whom his mother had entrusted to the river inside a basket to save him from the massacre of the Israeli male children (ordered by the Pharaoh of Egypt to prevent the Israeli population became too numerous and could rebel against slavery), he was found by a handmaid of Pharaoh's daughter, who decided to adopt him and saved him. The scene, set along the river, is entirely occupied by the female figures of the princely retinue, crowded together and projected towards the bottom right corner where the basket with the newborn is placed. All eyes are also turned towards the child, in the direction indicated by the outstretched arm of the woman in the foreground on the right. The roundness of the female forms stands out, especially of the three figures in the foreground, where plays of light and shadow highlight the complexions that emerge from the clothes. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a frame.

Oil on canvas. Intense and high quality, the painting depicts a monarch of the royal house of Scotland. Around the portrait, in a painted oval frame, there are some writings: the name Rober(t) appears at the top left, the title Rex at the bottom left and the abbreviation Scot, which stands for Scotorum, on the right; the writing at the top right is not identifiable, but it seems to be an acronym. The man portrayed wears a hat and a coat adorned with ermine fur, which is considered the noblest fur, reserved for royalty. He wears a golden pendant around his neck, which depicts two leaves with the fruit of the thistle, which, in heraldry, symbolizes Scotland. The writing and the pendant therefore refer to a Robert of Scotland, probably from the dynasty that reigned in the fourteenth century. The portrait was however executed in the romantic nineteenth-century period, probably using some ancient engravings for inspiration. Restored and relined, it is presented in a frame in style.

Oil on canvas. Northern Italy school. The depiction of the Nativity is seen here as a contemplative moment of the Holy Child, by Mary and Joseph, accompanied by little angels. The pictorial ways resume those of widely replicated models, starting from Correggio, from Barocci, to arrive at the numerous versions of Gherardo delle notte, or the Flemish painter Gerard Von Honthorst, representative of tenebrism, a pictorial current that played on strong contrasts of darkness and light, light and dark. In this work too, the light radiated by the Baby Jesus illuminates the figures around him and makes them emerge from the surrounding darkness. The restored and relined work is presented in a 19th century frame.