19th CENTURY PAINTINGS
 

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. This is a small copy of Titian's work of the same name, created around 1532 and today preserved in the Louvre Museum. Originally it was thought that the work portrayed Alfonso d'Avalos, marquis of Vasto, bidding farewell to his wife before going to fight the Turks. Instead, it is more likely a prototype of a matrimonial allegory that enjoyed widespread success in Venice. The spouses are represented in the guise of Mars (in armour) and Venus, and are accompanied by Cupid, protector deity of love, who holds a bundle of arrows, by Vesta, goddess of the domestic hearth, crowned with myrtle, symbol of marital fidelity , and by Hymenaeus, divinity of weddings who offers a basket of fruit and flowers. The woman holds a crystal ball, as if she wanted to peer into the future. The melancholic expressions of the protagonists have been read as a reference to the possible death or departure of one of the two spouses. The painting is presented in a contemporary frame.

Oil painting on canvas. The painting portrays the face of an elderly saint, holding a lily in his hand, a symbol of purity, while reading a large book, presumably a sacred text. It is presumably a representation of Saint Joseph: if tradition usually has him represented with Baby Jesus in his arms, starting from the Renaissance Joseph began to also be depicted absorbed in reading a book, in the guise of a "philosopher", or a man who drew the wisdom of knowing how to make right and wise choices from reading sacred texts. The work is presented in a contemporary frame.

Oil on wooden board. The small glimpse represents a wooded glimpse, leafy and shaded, in which various figurines stroll and enjoy themselves. The signature AJ Garnier appears at the bottom center, which refers to the French artist Alfred Jean Garnier (1848 -1908), enameller, painter and engraver. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil painting on canvas. The two still lifes propose compositions of objects placed on wooden tables covered with damask fabrics and surmounted by draped curtains. Among the objects depicted in both scenes there are musical scores, in one case also a flute, and glasses of particular shapes, filled with wine, flanked by embossed metal jugs. Some books, a pomegranate and a crystal vase with flowers in a painting also appear; a plate of cherries with a ceramic cup, a lemon and a branch of raspberries in the other canvas. The two works are presented in gilded frames from the early 1900s.

Bice and Ottorino Visconti

Oil painting on canvas. Signed lower left. The title on the back on the frame. The Milanese painter Filippo Carcano, who was a pupil of Hayez at the Brera Academy, dedicated himself to the production of historical and historical-literary subjects especially at the beginning of his career, then moving on to genre scenes and scenes of social interest and then to landscape . Here he proposes the horseback portraits of two characters taken from the novel Marco Visconti by Tommaso Grossi, which tells of the impossible love between Bice del Balzo and Ottorino Visconti against the backdrop of fourteenth-century Lombardy, between Limonta, on Lake Como, Milan and the castle of Rosate. The painting is presented in a late 19th century gilded frame.

Oil on canvas. Portrait of a middle-aged woman, dressed entirely in black, perhaps for mourning. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a contemporary gilded frame.

Oil painting on canvas. French school. At the bottom left are the signature and date written backwards; the signature is readable as H. Faillade. At the bottom right there is the Latin writing " Quando ex exilio redibit!!!"; (When he returns from exile!). This writing underlines the bond of the man portrayed with the young general depicted in the small picture that he holds in his hand, probably his relative and linked to the monarchy of Charles, the last sovereign of the Bourbon-France dynasty, absolutist and anti-liberal monarch, overthrown from the throne and fled in exile in 1830 during the July Revolution, known as the Second French Revolution. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Landscape with River and Figures 1878

Watercolor and pencil on paper. Signed and dated lower left. We know of several landscape views of the English countryside by the English painter Henry Clifford Warren, mostly painted in watercolour. Here is a view of a wooded countryside crossed by a wide river, with a shepherd leading his cows to graze on the hill in the foreground. Presented in a frame.

Glimpse of the Creuse Valley

Oil on the table. Signed lower right. The French painter Gaston Anglade specialized in views and glimpses of the Dordogne, the Pyrenees of Alsace. Recurring in his production are these views of the Creuse valley, covered with pink heather, called "Valley of the painters", because it was chosen by numerous impressionist painters, and home to the School of Painters led by Claude Monet. The work is presented in a frame.

The Announcement of Defeat at Waterloo

Oil painting on canvas. French school of the 19th century. The scene, set in the poor bedroom of an elderly war veteran, who is crying in his bed, sees his family telling him the sad news of the defeat at Waterloo, as can be deduced from the sheet of newspaper in the woman's hands, on which the name of the historic location where Napoleon Bonaparte was definitively defeated. The canvas shows signs of previous restorations, in particular the patch corresponding to the female figure is clearly visible. It is presented in an early 20th century setting.

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. 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.

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. Italian school of the mid-19th century. Portrait of a young gentleman of the nineteenth-century bourgeoisie, presented in an elegant black evening suit, leaning against the back of a red velvet armchair, probably from a theater. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a repurposed antique frame.

Oil painting on canvas. At the bottom left there is a signature traced very lightly and not decipherable. There is a plaque on the frame attributing the work to Jean-Baptiste François Pater (1695-1736), which is considered inconsistent. The landscape develops near the mouth of a river into the sea; on the left there is the landing directly to a group of houses; on the right a rowboat is leaving the tree-lined shore, with two scantily clad figures. Relined, the painting is presented in a late 19th century frame.

Oil painting on canvas. The great scene with a realist subject is set in a thick forest where, near a spring, a small family has stopped for a rest break: leaving the cart with their belongings (without a horse, therefore pulled by hand!), a man , a woman and a large group of children, are resting, eating, cooling off at the source or playing. From the top left a ray of sunlight filters through the trees, which illuminates the group of figures located at the bottom centre, protagonists of the scene. The painting is presented in a gilded frame from the late 19th - early 20th century.

Oil painting on canvas. Signed and dated on the right "Rivoire 1884". It is the portrait of a woman, still young but very serious in her upright pose, in her unsmiling gaze, perhaps in mourning as suggested by the austere black dress she is wearing, together with the rather dark monochrome background. The work is presented in a contemporary frame, with some shortcomings that require restoration.

Oil painting on canvas. On the back there is a dedication with the date 1862 and the signature "Per Monsignor F. di Mombello, devotamente Petrus Lucatello decisit". The extremely serene and peaceful landscape presents a stretch of rocky sea coast, inhabited by figures of fishermen and commoners, with the ruin of a stone arch. The painting is presented in a late 19th century frame.