Antique Sculpture African Knight Signed Mène France XIX Century - France, XIX-XX 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.

The Violin Player

Oil painting on canvas. Signed lower left. The Milanese artist, son of the famous painter Alcide Davide Campestrini, dedicated himself to still life, figure painting and Alpine landscapes, with a technique linked to his father's school and the late nineteenth-century tradition. painting presented in a contemporary frame.

Oil on cardboard. Suggestive mountain view that frames a rocky and barren peak, surmounted by a few pines towering in the centre; on the rocky spur a very small human figure is outlined, contemplating the landscape; in the background the snow-capped peaks, which fade into the sky. The painting is presented in a contemporary 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.

Landscape with Mill

Oil on cardboard. Signed lower right. Carlo Vittori, an artist from Cremona, mainly portrayed the landscapes of his Po Valley. Here he proposes a countryside inhabited by a mill, to which the water arrives through an overhead canalization. The painting is presented in chronicle.

Interior of Stable

Oil on hardboard. Signed lower right. The Cremonese painter Carl Vittori specialized in landscape views of his Po Valley lands or in scenes with animal figures, always linked to peasant life, like this stable interior inhabited by a donkey. The chromatic and luminous choices are suggestive. The work is presented in a frame.

Seated Figure

Oil on wooden board. Signed lower right. The painter Salvatore Sportelli, of Apulian origin but who lived for a long time in Lodi, where he taught (a posthumous exhibition of his was recently held in the city), produced numerous popular figures and genre scenes characterized by a look at post-impressionism. The work is presented in a frame.

Sunny Landscape

Fresco on canvas. Signed lower right. Further signature and technique on the back. Placed in the informal Emilian naturalism, Bruno Saetti's painting is distinguished by a significant love for the pictorial material, rich and consistent, pasty and fermenting, but also open to the modulations of luminous vibration. His series of "frescoes" with the Sun as the dominant subject is rich, as in this work, which presents a large bright sun shining on a brick red background, above an indefinite landscape, where only a basilica can be recognized at the top right. If Saetti's Emilian origin is evident in the warm tones of the red bricks and in the very peculiar taste of the material (the favorite fresco), on the other hand the Venetian contamination is recognizable (Saetti lived for a long time in Venice) in his lingering on the color, on its luminous vibrations, on the feeling of astonished amazement of space. The work is presented in a frame.

Mountain Landscape, 1917

Oil on cardboard. Signed and dated lower right. Originally from the province of Cuneo, Giovanni Rava dedicated himself mainly to landscapes, rendered in realistic forms and with an impressionist touch, in the shades of luministic effects. The work is presented in a mid-20th century frame.

Oil on cardboard. Unidentified signature lower right. Landscape glimpse of a peasant countryside, with farmers approaching the wheat field, full of golden ears, while to the left of the path there is a shady spot, which leads to a fence. The painting is presented in a contemporary gilded frame, with small defects.

Mountain Landscape

Oil painting on canvas. Signed lower left. The Milanese painter Gino Federici specialized in Alpine views, as in this view, where in the foreground a flock of sheep drinks water from a stream, in the wide valley, under steep peaks. The painting is presented in a contemporary frame. It shows signs of previous restoration.