Liberty frame - Italy Late 19th Century

In the Sheepfold, 1857

Oil on wooden board. Signed and dated in the center of the left margin. On the back there is a label from an art exhibition held in Sondrio in 1966 and one from the Martina art gallery in Turin. Eugène Verboeckhoven, a Belgian artist, distinguished himself for his paintings of animals, inserted into landscapes or placed in the interiors of stables. He belonged to that school of artists who, starting from the observation of nature, created compositions studied in detail, idealized reproductions of reality. Thanks to his dexterity in depicting animals, many artists called on him to enrich their works with some of his animals and figures. Between 1841 and 1842 he visited Italy, Switzerland and Scotland. The work presented here, an interior of a sheepfold with sheep and chickens scratching around, is presented in a period frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Large portrait of a priest who, wearing vestments, is kneeling in contemplative prayer in front of the Crucifix, placed on an altar. Behind him on the right there is a glimpse of the town. The light of the Cross radiates on the face of man. Restored and relined, it is presented in a late 19th century frame.

Mixed technique (pencil, pen, brown ink and white chalk) on paper. Italian school of the early 19th century. The scene represents the meeting between a high priest and a leader: if he is followed by his entire army, with grim and armed soldiers of different ranks, the priest is followed by all the people who praise the winner, while two young women on their knees they offer wreaths of flowers. Behind the scene, the mighty walls with the entrance door to a city, towards which the priest points, almost as if handing it over to the leader. The priest's clothing, in particular the presence of the so-called "Decision" breastplate that he wears, refers to an Israelite priest, and therefore the city could be Jerusalem; instead the clothing of the victorious leader, with the helmet surmounted by two horses, refers to Alexander the Great, who actually conquered the city in 332 BC. The drawing is presented in a carved wooden frame from the late 19th century.

Ludovico il Moro's farewell to his wife..

Mixed media (pencil, pen, brown ink and white chalk) on paper. Italian school of the early 19th century. Ludovico Maria Sforza cries at the tomb of his young wife Beatrice d'Este (1475 -1497); around him the friars of Santa Maria delle Grazie and on his left Bramante and Leonardo. On the short side of the marble canopy of the tomb there is the Sforza coat of arms, with two snakes and two eagles. Il Moro was profoundly shaken by the early death in childbirth of his very young wife Beatrice, his companion in his private but also political life, as well as his husband's, a patron of the artistic geniuses of their court, such as Leonardo da Vinci. and Bramante, authors of many pictorial and architectural works of the Visconti-Sforza court. Various versions of this episode are known, especially from the nineteenth century, from that of 1815 by Giovanni Battista Cigola at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, to that of Alessandro Reati of around 1850. The painting is presented in a carved wooden frame from the late 19th century.

Mixed media on paper. Delicate oval portrait of a young man, whose face and hair fade into the pastel colors of the background, which seems to be one with his figure. The work is presented in a contemporary frame.

Interior of Stable, 1889

Oil on hardboard. Signed and dated 11-30-1889 lower left. Delleani, who initially painted mainly historical subjects, progressively approached landscape painting "en plein air", especially of the places of his origins, the Piedmontese valleys, characterizing his views with chromatic vibrations and warm brightness. In the last decades of his life, however, he also allowed himself to be involved in the orientalist trend, but then returned to his landscape views, creating above all panels rich in warm colors and suggestive atmospheres. Rarer but equally evocative is his production of interiors, such as this one of a stable, where the animated figures, the sheep, appear as almost indistinct spots of color within an environment played entirely on the luminous effects of a single chromatic range. Restored and protected, the painting is presented in a gilded frame from the early 1900s.

Ballerina 1896

Mixed media on cardboard. Signed dated lower right. Adolfo Magrini was a multifaceted artist: painter, illustrator, engraver, set designer, after an initial production influenced by the romantic painting of Palizzi and Morelli, he was contaminated by Central European influences, becoming more angular. This youthful work is still influenced by the Neapolitan artists with whom he trained. The painting is presented in a frame from the first half of the 20th century. Has some color damage.

Oil on hardboard. Unidentifiable acronym at the bottom left. In English style, the painting presents a country landscape with a hunting dog sniffing out the scent, followed at a distance by the hunter. The painting is presented in a contemporary frame.

Wooden Landscape

Oil on cardboard. signed lower right. Cavaleri was exclusively a landscape painter and in particular a marine painter, considered an exponent of the latest Lombard naturalism. His painting, linked to reproduction from life, stands out for its lively and brilliant colour, with shades spread in large patches, with a technique that brings him closer to the Lombard impressionists of the late 19th century. In the most mature phase of his activity, the artist he approached Liberty (his posters are very well known) and Symbolism, influenced by his poet friend Gian Pietro Lucini. The work is presented in a contemporary frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Bottom right signed Borella and dated 1894. It is probably Rafael Borella (1874 -1953), a painter born and trained in Milan but then moved to Uruguay. His first Italian production includes Venetian and Val d'Aosta landscapes. This painting, which offers a mountain view, with meadows crossed by a stream near which a fisherman sits. The scene could therefore be a youthful production by Borella, suited to him in terms of subject and style. The work is presented in a contemporary frame.

Graphics applied in watercolour. On a background of wooden panels drawn in watercolour, to simulate a wall, pages of old books with texts and images, sheets of ancient musical scores, envelopes of letters are applied; all the elements are then outlined in watercolor to create the effect of shadows, to give greater depth to the paper images. The work is presented in a frame.

Oil painting on canvas. The large painting recalls the pictorial methods of the 17th century but is from a later period, and was created on a canvas applied to an older one. The scene tells the biblical episode (taken from the Book of Kings) widely narrated pictorially, depicting the bath of Bathsheba, the wife of General Uriah, in the service of King David. According to the biblical story, David is on the terrace of his palace when he notices the woman bathing in the garden of her home, surrounded by her handmaids. Davide falls in love with her and seduces her, making her pregnant. To hide the crime, he recalls General Uriah from the front, to make him lie down with his wife, but Uriah does not want to leave his soldiers; then David sends him to fight on the front line hoping that he will be killed: this happens and David can marry Bathsheba, but he will be punished by God for the adultery and impiety committed. The painting shows the moment in which Bathsheba, having just come out of the bathroom, while she is reflected in the mirror held by a slave girl, and surrounded by other servants, reads the note that King David sent her; the latter appears at the top right, overlooking the terrace. The scene is dominated by female figures intertwined with each other, in a tangle of clothes and fabrics, and surrounded by flowers from the garden; in the center stands the mirror in a rich golden frame. The painting has a patch at the bottom right. It is presented in an antique gilded frame.