Small Antique Mannerist Frame Oak Wood Marble Italy XVI-XVII Century - Italy XVI - First Half XVII Century

Oil painting on canvas. The scene takes place near a military camp: outside a tent on the left an army leader, probably Greek, is receiving offerings from a group of men, poor and ragged, who prostrate themselves before the new master; the first is holding out some loaves of bread, another is taking something out of a sack, the third is showing the wounds on his body to ask for mercy; behind them other figures of beggars are approaching, forming a scattered line on the path fading into the distance on the right. In the background on the left, life in the military camp is bustling. The painting has been restored and relined.

Oil painting on canvas. Northern Italian school of the 17th-18th centuries. The scene shows the clash between knights outside the walls of a besieged city, with the smoke of firearms invading the sky. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in an adapted antique frame. The scene shows the clash between knights outside the walls of a besieged city, with the smoke of firearms invading the sky. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in an adapted antique frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Northern Italian school of the 17th century. The large painting presents as its subject a well-known Old Testament theme, the wealth of King Solomon, told in the First Book of Kings: "King Solomon surpassed, therefore, in wealth and wisdom, all the kings of the earth. In every part of the earth to approach Solomon to listen to the wisdom that God had placed in his heart. Everyone brought him, every year, offerings of silver and gold objects, clothes, weapons, spices, horses and mules". In the painting the king, richly dressed with the symbols of royalty (the crown, the scepter, the ermine cloak), listens standing to the postulants who come to him to receive the advice dictated by his proverbial wisdom, and in exchange they bring him offerings, which are commensurate with their social role: some farmers bring gifts of bags of grain, the fruits of their work in the fields, another raises a cup high, to attract the king's attention. The colors and pictorial style of the painting refer to the production of northern Italy, especially Venetian. The painting has been restored and relined.

Oil painting on canvas. Neapolitan school of the 17th-18th century. It is a traditional scene of the deposition of Christ from the Cross, with the inert and pale body lowered into the arms of his mother Mary, in turn embraced and supported in her pain by the disciple John, and around, sharing in the mourning, two pious women and two disciples. The scene is characterized by a diagonally descending linearity, which follows the body of Jesus, starting from the pole of the Cross raised on the left and ending with the woman crouched to embrace Jesus' feet on the right. All around, a bare and gray background, which underlines the drama and emptiness that it creates. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in an early 20th century frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Roman school of the 17th century. The landscape, large and airy, pervaded by a "classical", timeless atmosphere, fits into the classicizing current of ideal views taken from the Roman countryside, introduced to Rome with great success during the 17th century following the example of Carracci, Domenico, Albani and the French Poussin, Dughet, Lorrain, and continued into the following century with artists such as Andrea Locatelli. This type of landscape paintings aimed to exalt the principles of beauty, reason, order and measure typical of the classical world, to celebrate the value of history, the trust inherited from the ancients in the virtues of man and his possibilities. In the nature of these landscapes, which is not abandoned to chaos, but is composed, orderly, not disturbed by violent or disorderly elements, human figures are placed, dressed in the old style as in this painting, in which a couple dressed in classic tunics she converses amiably sitting (or rather, half-reclining almost as if they were on a triclinium) in the middle of a shady and green countryside, near a quiet river; in the distance you can glimpse the buildings of a city and your gaze is then lost in the orderly and peaceful continuity of the rolling hills of Lazio. The painting, restored and relined, is presented in a period frame.

Oil painting on canvas. The Madonna is depicted in glory, standing in the heavens and surrounded by little angels. The work, still on the first canvas, was applied on a modern stretcher: this fact, together with the incompleteness of the figure of Mary, suggests that the painting was part of a larger canvas. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Southern Italian school of the 17th-18th centuries. The scene, full of characters, sees the figure of a leader standing at the centre, well defined in the details of the armour, the crest, as well as the anatomy: he is benevolently accompanying with the movement of his arms a kneeling man who, together to his companion, he is paying homage to an emperor, however indicating with his outstretched hand the group of six children, held back on the right by soldiers. The emperor has risen from the throne, on the left, and goes to meet the prostrate couple, but he too seems almost in an attitude of reverence towards the central leader. The scene seems to refer to a historical episode of clemency of a leader, who due to his age, features and type of armour, could be Alexander the Great, a character who, however, is difficult to match with the other figure crowned with laurel, who descends from the throne in the sumptuous palace . It is therefore not possible to specifically identify the episode (historical or legendary?) of reference. Furthermore, the compositional richness of the scene is appreciated, with numerous well-detailed figures and bright colors to underline its dynamism. The work, restored and relined, is presented in an antique frame.

Disciple of Peter Paul Rubens

Oil on canvas. The painting derives from the work by Rubens (1577 -1640) conserved in the Prado Museum in Madrid, reproduced as a counterpart in engraving by Paulus Pontius (1603 -1658), as also appears in this version. Occupying the vertical centre of the scene is the figure of Mary, whose face was inspired by that of Isabel Brandt, the Flemish painter's first wife, who died in1626 at the age of just 35. The Madonna holds the Child Jesus in her arms, who looks tenderly but seriously into her eyes, while a small hand rests on his mother's uncovered breast, from which he has just received nourishment; behind, standing, St. Anne wraps the shoulders of her daughter and grandson in a tender and protective embrace, smiling complacently: On the left side, somewhat separated and in the dark, Joseph watches pensively and worriedly: the only human figure who does not fit into the light emanating from the Child's face, radiating on Mary's and, by reflection, also on St. Anne's. Compared to the master's work, the composition of the figures is respected, but several details vary, particularly in the clothing of St. Anne, Mary, and the drapery that encircles the Child's hips, supporting the hypothesis that it is the work of a follower of the Flemish master. The painting, restored and re-tinted, is in good condition, with only a scratch in the colour in the top centre.

Oil painting on canvas. Central Italian school of the 17th century. The unusual and particular representation presents on the left the three figures of the Holy Family, with Jesus already a child, sitting at the table and blessing the simple meal they are about to consume (consisting of fruit and bread); the scene, a subject depicted rather rarely and generally with a more sacred character due to the presence of angels serving food to the family, here instead has the flavor of very normal and simple domestic intimacy. Instead, everything around the Holy Family stands out majestically, the glimpse of a Renaissance city, with tall buildings with loggias and colonnades, presented according to a beautiful perspective effect which leads, at the bottom on the right, to the entrance walls of a richly turreted city, probably Jerusalem. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a late 19th century frame.