Scope Of Gerrit Van Honthorst Oil On Canvas 17th Century - Jesus In Front Of Caiaphas

Oil on canvas. In the large scene set outside, the laboratory of a blacksmith stands out on the left side, who is intent to work on horseshoes with his helpers while the owner of the horse attends; in the centre, other knights arrive with their servants who are headed to the craftsman; on the right some popular figures are resting on the roadside. In the background, a large river landscape opens up on the right, while on the left there is the access to the village, dominated by a dilapidated building, with various popular figures intent on their activities: the woman who is about to breastfeed a child, while the other son runs away up the staircase, another woman hanging the clothes on the balcony of the house built on stilts on the rock, while a man climbs the ladder. It probably is a piece by a Flemish author working in Lombardy. Some references to clothing and construction certainly indicate the Northern European contamination, while other details indicate it was realized in a Lombard location. The painting comes from a prestigious historical residence of a Lombard noble family Still on the first canvas, it has some cuts and a hole in the lower band; some patches on the back from an old restoration. It is presented in a thin coeval frame.

Oil on canvas. The large scene is set at the entrance of a village near a stop for horses: numerous horsemen are standing with their animals, which are looked after by the servants and the peasants who fill the manger with hay; one of the servants, on the right, lets the animals drink in the nearby stream. In the background, the houses of the village arranged along the river, which then flows into the hilly landscape on the right. It probably is a piece by a Flemish author working in Lombardy. Some references to clothing and construction certainly indicate the Northern European contamination, while other details indicate it was realized in a Lombard location. The painting comes from a prestigious historical residence of a Lombard noble family Still on the first canvas, it has some cuts in the lower band. It is presented in a thin coeval frame.

Aaron with Moses before the Pharaoh

Oil on canvas. XVII-XVIII century. The great scene tells a biblical episode from the book of Exodus, in which Aaron with Moses before the Pharaoh of Egypt, transforms his staff into a snake, to emulate the tricks that the Egyptian magicians had done to frighten them. The Pharaoh seated on his throne on the left, surrounded by servants, and the magicians on the right, observe the miracle in consternation and fright, while in the center Aaron, recognizable by the priestly headdress, indicates the event while at his side Moses, with the raised finger indicates heaven, to send the miracle back to divine power. The snake here has the shape of a winged dragon, which is trampling the snakes of the Egyptian magi. The typology of the scene and the pictorial modes refer to the production of Antonio Molinari (1655 -1734), one of the most authoritative representatives of Venetian painting at the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, who distinguished himself for his personal style, characterized by an accentuated theatricality of gestures , from a lively palette and a remarkable fluidity of the brushstroke. Molinari achieved considerable success with the production of room paintings depicting episodes of a historical, mythological or biblical nature, which were widely taken up and re-proposed. The large canvas, restored and relined, is presented in a style frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Lombard area of the late 18th century. The four canvases show scenes from Orlando Furioso, the famous epic poem written by Ludovico Ariosto and published for the first time in 1516. On the frame, on the back, there are handwritten writings in ancient Italian, which say the title of the scene and they give the reference of the song and the verse. All four scenes represent episodes taken from the first two songs of the poem and appear to be sequential. The attributive titles are as follows: 1- “This painting represents that Paladin galiardo (Rinaldo) son of Amone sig. di Monte Albano, which describes Ariosto in canto 1 to verse 12 ”: depicts the moment in which Rinaldo, on foot of his horse Baiardo, sees Angelica escaped from the camp of Namo di Baviera in the wood. 2- "This painting represents Angelica and Ferraù when she comes to their aid, which Ariosto describes in canto 1 verse 14": Angelica fleeing from Rinaldo, meets in the woods Ferraù, a noble Saracen knight who is also in love with the girl, who helps to escape by opposing the Christian knight. 3- “This painting represents Rinaldo and Sacripante who fall down, Angelica runs away from their fury. Ariosto describes it in Canto 2 verse 10 ": Rinaldo and Sacripante fight to compete for the love of Angelica, who in the meantime runs away. 4- “This painting represents Rinaldo and Sacripante in the act they fell for Angelica and were stopped by a spirit in the form of a Valletto. Ariosto describes it in canto 2 verse 15 ": while the two knights fight, Angelica meets a hermit, who, with a spell, evokes a spirit with the appearance of a footman, who interrupts the duel between the two contenders. The paintings therefore belong to a single pictorial cycle, attributable to the end of the eighteenth century and which, in accordance with the neoclassical taste, represents the characters in classical clothes - warriors dressed as ancient soldiers, Angelica dressed in a Roman tunic, shoes and bracelet - , but inserted in a landscape of Northern Italy, a shady and dense forest. The Orlando Furioso had the peculiarity of proposing the warlike theme associated with the love one (in particular the love story between Angelica and Medoro was preferred, which became the subject of numerous works by artists of all centuries) and obtained great popularity and success: His representations were numerous in all ranges of visual pictorial art, in stately frescoes, paintings, ceramics, even apothecary jars, cups, medals, pendulums, candelabra. It began in the Emilian land, the homeland of the poem created by Ariosto for Cardinal Ludovico D'Este, to arrive at the Medici courts, in Lombardy, where subsequently Ariosto's pictorial cycles were carried out in numerous palaces and stately homes. The canvases are presented in gilded style frames.

The Wavy Sea

Oil on canvas. As signed by the label on the back, the painting was presented athe "Venetian Baroque Painting Exhibition" of 1943, with the title "in porto al tramonto" and the attribution to Marco Ricci. This attribution can be motivated by the executive ability, which through rapid and loose brushstrokes. It manages to fully render the natural reality of the stormy sea with sensivity. In this regard, see the similar images published by Rodolfo Pallucchini in the studies "Studi ricceschi: contributo a Marco published in the magazine Arte veneta (vol. IX, 1955). Ricci's landscape and marine productions (which, however, were not his most extensive production) are characterized by powerful and emotional lights, by dry and twisted trees, rocks and towers, cumulus clouds that suddenly break open in vague flashes of blue, foaming waves, a complex repertoire that transfigures nature into a dramatic and restless representation, in which man is also inserted as an integral element. Also in this painting we find these highly dramatic but at the same time scenographic elements, with some human figures, three men on a small boat in the foreground, who are barely distinguishable from the sea and the rocks that surround them, as well as the ship on the left sinking engulfed by the sea. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. Lombard School. It is the portrait of a man in armour standing proud, almost in motion, his hand sitting on the hilt of his sword; there is a coat of arms top left, a painted title block bottom right with a long Latin inscription, that identifies the man. He is Bartolomeo III Olevano, who belongs to the powerful noble family of the Olevano, feudal lords of many towns in the Pavia and Lomellina areas (where their castle still exists), who was very involved in the history of Pavia and its countryside until the 18th century. Bartolomeo III, born in 1512, had dedicated himself to the art of war for 40 years, carrying out numerous and highly honoured deeds, and was prefect of Mortara and Novara during the domination of Charles V, leader of soldiers and ambassador of Philip II. His most important achievements are summarised in the title block: a translation of the text is available. The coat of arms of the family has an olive tree on the left, from which the family took its name. The painting comes from an important historical Lombard family collection.

Oil on canvas. North-European School. This is a funny allegorical scene of profane love, that wants to prove how everyone, of any social class and every age, can fall into the trap of falling in love. The background of the canvas is occupied by an enormous keepnet, the basket net used in some kinds of fishing, above its opening sits a putto playing the violin; the keepnet is crowded with couples, while a parade of other couples walks in front of them to reach the entrance. Between them, there are couples of old and young people, rich and poor people, nobles, bourgeois and proletarians. Everyone has a content and light expression, they share looks of love or they benevolently look at the happiness of the others. Inside the keepnet, there is even a couple of royals, that correspond, for their features and clothing, to the Elector Palatine of Rhineland, John William of the Palatinate-Neuburg and his second wife Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici. On the back of the painting, there is a label bearing a historical attribution to Jan Frans Douven (1656-1727), the Dutch artist who moved to Düsseldorf in 1682 as the official painter at the Court of the Elector Palatine of Rhineland, mostly representing scenes of the daily life of the prince and his second wife. The label would confirm the scope of the attribution to an artist of the 17th-18th century in Northern Europe. The painting comes from a historical collection in Milan. It shows some traces of restorations and a patch. Frame in style.

Oil on canvas. Emilian school. The large painting comes from the mixture of a piece by Guido Reni (1575-1642), "Virgin Mary at the sewing school", now lost, but known for studio copies and engravings, and another version, left unfinished by Reni himself and then completed by Gianandrea Sirani (1610-1670), and is now presented in the Hermitage Museum in Petersburg. The art historian Massimo Pulini has written about this second version and the finishing work by Sirani, in the article "Gianandrea Sirani painter of recitatives and finisher of unfinished pieces by Reni". The piece presented here refers to the version of Sirani in the composition that takes up the whole scene with female figures participating in the school, to which the little dog is added, however moved from left to right, while the presence of the girl accompanied by her mother on the right refers to the version of Reni. Moreover, an absolutely new element appears in this piece, which makes this canvas an additional version: the presence of a landscape opening in the background in the centre, framed between the two heavy curtains. The piece has been restored and relined. It is presented in an 18th century frame, regilded and adapted.

Oil painting on canvas. Neapolitan school of the mid-18th century. The painting proposes the Greek myth of the sacrifice of Iphigenia, the daughter of King Agamemnon, leader of the Achaean expedition that was to leave for Troy. As the Greek fleet was unable to take to the sea due to unfavorable winds, the soothsayer Calcante predicted that, due to an offense the king had inflicted on the goddess Artemis, it now opposed their departure until the king did not. sacrificed his young daughter on the altar. Iphigenia courageously accepted the sacrifice and spontaneously ascended the altar, but at the last moment Artemis, pitying, exchanged her for a fawn and took the girl alive in Tauris, where she became a priestess of the goddess who had saved her. The great scene, set outside the Greek camp by the sea (the anchored ships in the background on the left, the tents on the right), sees in the center the goddess Artemis who exchanges the young and beautiful Iphigenia for the fawn, while the priest Calcante he is already holding the sacrificial knife; on the right the desperation of King Agamemnon and his wife Clytemnestra. The painting is in stylistic ways close to the production of Fedele Fischetti (1732-1792), the Neapolitan artist who devoted himself mainly to allegorical / mythological scenes, in particular in his first works from the 1860s. The work presented here was auctioned at Sotheby's in April 1998. Restored and relined, it is presented in a style frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Neapolitan school of the eighteenth century. Of great impact and of good executive quality, the work refers in the ways to the works of Leonardo Coccorante (1680-1750), a Neapolitan artist known for his highly detailed large-scale landscapes characterized by classical architectural ruins, thus confirming the hypothesis of work in the Neapolitan area. The whole scene is occupied by imposing architectural structures, in Baroque style, among which various figures move. In particular, in the center in the foreground, some soldiers on horseback, in ancient Roman armor, lead a squad of infantry armed with spears and preceded by trumpeters; all are intent on admiring the city they are entering, while around them, citizens intent on their activities observe them. Restored and relined, the painting still has some color losses. It is presented in a stylish frame.

Erminia among the Shepherds

Oil on canvas. The large canvas recounts an episode taken from the Gerusalemme Liberata by Torquato Tasso, in which the young Erminia, princess of Antioch secretly in love with Tancredi, witnesses the wounding of her beloved in a duel. Driven by love, she therefore wears the weapons of the warrior Clorinda, her close friend, and at night she goes out to reach her beloved Tancredi and heal him. But in the Christian camp a ray of moonlight illuminates her and, mistaken for Clorinda by the sentries, she is forced to make a hasty flight: this is how it happens in a village inhabited by shepherds who live far from the war in an idyllic space, where she asks and obtains to be hosted for some time in the (vain) hope of forgetting her unhappy love. The work, already attributed to Carlo Loth, is rather referable to the production of Louis Dorigny, the Parisian painter who lived for a long time in Italy, in Rome, in Venice and finally definitively in Verona, where he obtained numerous orders from Veronese but also from clients. Venetians and Lombards, extending his activity as a fresco painter from Bergamo to Udine. In Verona since the beginning of the century, the preferences in the field of painting went towards a complex classicistic language in the composition, but calm and elegant, even in the great decorative works. Dorigny conforms to this painting, who in this canvas combines the balanced classicism of Simon Vouet (of whom he was grandson) with the chiaroscuro he learned in Rome and the calm Venetian elegance. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in an early 20th century frame.

Oil on canvas. Neapolitan school of the eighteenth century. The scene, located near the sea, is dominated by a large complex of architectural ruins, with statues, arches, hanging gardens, and animated by numerous figurines of commoners intent on various activities. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in an antique frame.