The Last Judgment

Oil painting on canvas. The work is probably the preparatory and presentation painting to the client of the fresco created by Moretti Larese for the vault of the church of Volpago del Montello (Treviso), dedicated to Santa Maria Maddalena. The Last Judgment describes Heaven on the clouds above, gathered around Christ sitting on the judge's throne. In the background the Trinitarian image is composed, with God the Father in flight and the dove of the Holy Spirit, among the choirs of angels and the elders of the Apocalypse. Christ the judge is flanked by his mother Mary, in the role of intercessor, and by the four evangelists who have in their hands the Gospels of which they are authors and alongside the traditional symbols. The saints of the Old Testament are lined up on the sides (David with the harp, Moses with the tablets of the law, John the Baptist with the processional cross) and the apostles Peter (with the keys) and Paul (with the sword of martyrdom). The terrace below is occupied by the other apostles (Andrew with the cross) and saints. The three Virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity, with their symbols, show the resurrected people the cross of Jesus' sacrifice. The angel with the top hat awakens the dead and shows them the judge. The archangel Michael, with his flaming sword and double-pan scales, decides the individual fate of the resurrected. Below, the elect (including mothers with their children) ascend to Heaven with the help of the angels. The damned instead end up in the flames of Hell. The painting presents evident traces of the underlying pencil drawing and, compared to the definitive fresco, some small differences in the postures of some figures and above all in the non-definitive colors. Moretti Largese was appreciated above all as a decorator of public and private buildings, but he also created some religious frescoes. The painting is presented in a late 19th century frame.

Virgin Mary with Child 1891

Oil painting on canvas. Signed and dated lower left. The Vercellese painter Giuseppe Gennaro created sacred subjects, as well as portraits and genre scenes. Here a Madonna and Child is proposed, in which the position of Jesus evokes the Cross, which Mary helps to hold. The work is presented in a contemporary gilded frame.

Maria Dolente

Marble bas-relief. Engraved signature along the left margin. Born in Cannobbio (on Lake Maggiore), Giulio Branca was introduced to the art by the Cannobio sculptor Bergonzoli, and later attended G. Strazza's school of nude drawing and sculpture at the Brera Academy. Born in Cannobio on 13 December 1850 to Ludovico, he was introduced to art by the Cannobio sculptor Bergonzoli, and attended the school of the nude and G. Strazza's school of sculpture at the Brera Academy. He made about four hundred sculptures, including memorials, funerary monuments and portrait busts. Branca also took part, following a competition, in the completion of the high wall of the cathedral of Como, which had remained unfinished for centuries, sculpting several figures in white marble for the façade and the altar between 1897 and 1900. The work presented here is a bas-relief showing a half-bust of the grieving Madonna flanked by two pious women. It is presented in a coeval wooden frame from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.

Oil on wooden board. The painting pictorially reproduces the famous sculpture by Michelangelo, the Pietà of San Pietro or Pietà Vaticana. The composition of the figures is quite faithful to the reference work, but, as well as being painted in colour, it is placed in an open-air setting that refers to Renaissance painting, with the hill of Calvary emerging in shadow on the left. A coat of arms is painted at the bottom left, evoking a noble patronage. The work is presented in a period frame. It has several spots and small drops of color.

Vase, Roman excavations, 1860

Oil painting on canvas. Signed and dated lower left. Further signature, date and title on the back. On the frame there is a stamp from an important private collection. The work proposes a composition of an amphora and a painted ceramic plate, surrounded on the right by roses. Milanese painter and decorator, Luigi Scrosati initially attended the Brera Academy, which he soon abandoned to devote himself to numerous trips abroad, in particular to Paris. Already from the beginning of his activity, in the 40s, he worked as a painter of still lifes strongly influenced by French examples, in particular from the Lyon school. Alongside the easel and watercolor production, dominated by the specialization of still life of flowers, Scrosati was very active as an interior decorator, often engaged in team work alongside architects and project managers, but always with considerable autonomy and a characteristic style , substantially eclectic and aimed at a reinterpretation of the styles of the past. The debut in this area, towards the end of 1842, consists of a cycle of frescoes in the residence of San Fiorano (LO) owned by Giorgio Guido Pallavicino Trivulzio, for which Scrosati decorated a Gothic room, a Rococo living room and a small entrance compartment. His frescoes can be found in numerous villas in and around Milan, works in which Scrosati refers to the styles of the past, re-proposing eighteenth-century suggestions, but also of the Baroque. The decorations in the Dante's Cabinet first and then in other rooms in the Palazzo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan (now home to the Museum of the same name) were instead of neo-medieval taste, made with the Bertini team of which Scorsati was part. The disease that struck Scrosati in the lower limbs in 1857, making him ill, probably prevented him from continuing his activity as a decorator, forcing him to fall back on floral easel painting, which led him to produce still lifes of flowers, but also portraits or fake bas-reliefs with garlands of flowers or even interiors and genre scenes, in which he was influenced by the German and Viennese production of the Biedermeier type and the French one of the Lyon school. In 1862 Scrosati was commissioned to direct a new Ornato course at the Brera Academy, with particular reference to flower painting and relations with industry, a course set up by the Braidense institution to expand the already flourishing school of ornamental painting. The work is presented in a style frame.

Oil painting on canvas. The scene, outdoors at the foot of a slope, shows two female figures slumped over and behind them a pilgrim, with the traditional staff and shells on his cloak. The woman in the foreground holds a rosary in one hand, and a sleeping child lies on her lap. The scene brings to mind a moment of sorrowful and contemplative prayer. The painting, already restored and relined, has several drops of color and stains. It is presented in a stylish frame.

Oil painting on canvas. In the composition, a woman with her child, in ancient clothes and flanked by an ox, kneeling on steep ground, stretch their arms upwards in an act of supplication or perhaps contemplation: it could be an interpretation of Mary who accompanies Baby Jesus to contemplate his destiny, with the ox which refers to the birth and simple pastoral life of the Holy Family. Restored and relined, the painting shows several traces of color loss. It is presented in a stylish 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.

Oil painting on canvas. The landscape, set in the mountains but with a view of the sea in the background, sees a figure of a commoner in the center and two on the sides, walking on the paths; some farmhouses are scattered on the green slopes. The painting presents several drops of color, especially the upper margin. It is presented in a stylish frame.

Oil on wooden board. Signed lower right. These are three small paintings proposing landscape glimpses, made in the naturalistic style typical of Lorenzo Gignous: the two lateral ones, measuring 24 x 30 cm, propose the most recurring subject in the Lombard artist's production, i.e. glimpses of Lake Maggiore, animated by fishing boats; in the center a smaller landscape (18 x 25 cm) with a group of trees in the countryside. The three small paintings are presented in a single coeval frame.

Oil painting on canvas. The composition features mixed fruit - grapes, apples, medlars, figs - placed on a cloth together with some mushrooms and some pink peonies. The colors stand out against the dark background. The painting is presented in an adapted style 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.

View with Ruins

Watercolor on paper. Signed lower right. Salomon Corrodi established himself as a landscape painter, creating a large production of views especially of the Roman countryside, but also of the Amalfi coast, Naples, the Ligurian Riviera, which was widely successful throughout Europe. He preferred the watercolor technique. The painting has traces of breakage, to be restored. The work is presented in a period frame.

Portrait of a young girl in marble placed on a grey marble column, depicting a young girl cloaked in the winter cold. The different processes used give variety in the rendition of the marble. On the back of the bust, “F. Andreini Florence 1894" is engraved.

Interior scene

Oil painting on canvas. Not signed, but on the back there is a dedication "Alla signora Clelia Mazzioli, con stima Gaetano Bellei 23 gennaio 1909". The big scene, set in a popular kitchen, sees a woman reading cards to two girls, who ask for explanations by pointing to the figures that appear and seem to compare them with a text leaning on the chair. The work recalls the painting of Gaetano Bellei, due to the strong realism with which the painter painted above all scenes of daily peasant life; he is considered a master of the depiction of human affections and of human reactions and sensations. The painting has slight drops of color. It is proposed in a stylish frame.

Gouaches on paper. The two small paintings offer Neapolitan views, identified by the inscriptions below: on the left, the eruption of Vesuvius in 1794, on the right, the entrance to the Grotte di Pozzuoli. Typical Grand Tour works, practically delicate and detailed postcards. They are presented in a single frame.

Burin engravings on copper. Designed by Vincenzo Gazzotto and engraved by Antonio Bernati (1792-1873) in 1833, these are four engravings taken from the figurative repertoire "The costume of all nations and of all times, described and illustrated with an atlas" published by Lodovico Menin between 1833 and 1843. Each panel is numbered in the upper right corner, and bears in the upper center the indication of the geographical region and historical period of the costume scenes depicted. There are costumes: Lombardi sec. IX - X; Lombardi sec. XIV -XV; Tuscans sec. XIII-XIV; Marca Trevigiana sec. XIV. The engravings are presented in wooden frames from the mid-1900s, in an antique style.

Chromolithography on paper, enriched by silver metal applications that define the halos of the Virgin and Child. The oval lithograph is also placed in a display case which is also exquisitely enriched with silver and gilded metal inserts, which define further frames with purely floral motif decorations. The representation presents the Madonna holding the rosary crown in her hand and the Baby Jesus in her arms, flanked on the sides by two saints of the Dominican order. The further frame with glass is made of wood with golden carvings.

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.