Giancarlo Gorini Art

The Trading Port Italian artist, circa 1720's period circle of Michele Marieschi (Italian 1696-1744) oil on canvas, unframed canvas: 21 x 30 inches provenance: private collection, UK...

The Military Encampment Dutch School, 17th century circle of Philips Wouwermans (Dutch 1619-1668) oil painting on canvas, in 18th century gilt frame canvas measures: 19.5 x 17 inches...

Francis Sartorius British, (1734-1804) Bay Hunter & Groom Oil on canvas, signed Image size: 24.25 inches x 29.25 inches Size including frame: 32 inches x 37 inches A wonderful spor...

This attractive early 18th-century oil on canvas depicts several figures with horses before an idealised rural landscape with distant village. The artist has drawn inspiration from ...

The Great Fire of London in September 1666 was one of the greatest disasters in the city’s history. The City, with its wooden houses crowded together in narrow streets, was a natural fire risk, and predictions that London would burn down became a shocking reality. The fire began in a bakery in Pudding Lane, an area near the Thames teeming with warehouses and shops full of flammable materials, such as timber, oil, coal, pitch and turpentine. Inevitably the fire spread rapidly from this area into the City. Our painting depicts the impact of the fire on those who were caught in it and creates a very dramatic impression of what the fire was like. Closer inspection reveals a scene of chaos and panic with people running out of the gates. It shows Cripplegate in the north of the City, with St Giles without Cripplegate to its left, in flames (on the site of the present day Barbican). The painting probably represents the fire on the night of Tuesday 4 September, when four-fifths of the City was burning at once, including St Paul's Cathedral. Old St Paul’s can be seen to the right of the canvas, the medieval church with its thick stone walls, was considered a place of safety, but the building was covered in wooden scaffolding as it was in the midst of being restored by the then little known architect, Christopher Wren and caught fire. Our painting seems to depict a specific moment on the Tuesday night when the lead on St Paul’s caught fire and, as the diarist John Evelyn described: ‘the stones of Paul’s flew like grenades, the melting lead running down the streets in a stream and the very pavements glowing with the firey redness, so as no horse, nor man, was able to tread on them.’ Although the loss of life was minimal, some accounts record only sixteen perished, the magnitude of the property loss was shocking – some four hundred and thirty acres, about eighty per cent of the City proper was destroyed, including over thirteen thousand houses, eighty-nine churches, and fifty-two Guild Halls. Thousands were homeless and financially ruined. The Great Fire, and the subsequent fire of 1676, which destroyed over six hundred houses south of the Thames, changed the appearance of London forever. The one constructive outcome of the Great Fire was that the plague, which had devastated the population of London since 1665, diminished greatly, due to the mass death of the plague-carrying rats in the blaze. The fire was widely reported in eyewitness accounts, newspapers, letters and diaries. Samuel Pepys recorded climbing the steeple of Barking Church from which he viewed the destroyed City: ‘the saddest sight of desolation that I ever saw.’ There was an official enquiry into the causes of the fire, petitions to the King and Lord Mayor to rebuild, new legislation and building Acts. Naturally, the fire became a dramatic and extremely popular subject for painters and engravers. A group of works relatively closely related to the present picture have been traditionally ascribed to Jan Griffier...

Provenance: The Marchesi Strozzi, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence Sale, Christie’s, London, May 20, 1993, lot 315, as by Carl Borromaus Andreas Ruthart...

The Venetian Canal Italian artist, 18th century circle of Francesco Guardi (Italian 1712-1793) oil on canvas, framed framed: 23.5 x 32.5 inches canvas: 20 x 29.5 inches provenance: p...

Oil painting on canvas measuring 85 x 110 cm without frame and 103 x 126 cm with frame depicting a landscape with figures along the path. In the work in question, depicting a large ...

Medium: Oil On Board Painting Size: 6 x 8 inches Frame Size: 9 x 10.5 inches Condition: This artwork is in good overall condition for its age. Signature: Signed Artist: Jacob Jan v...

Virgilio Ripari was best known for his seascapes and impressions of Venice. His romantic and peaceful paintings of life of Venice and Italy with placid waters or full sails on boats...

Turquoise, blue, red, sea, islands, Italy Shipment included in the price Fernando FARULLI (Florence, 1923 - 1997) 1948: Young Artists Salon, Paris 1952: International Art Biennale,...

The "Rural Scene" (oil painting on canvas, 90 x 113 cm without frame and 110 x 125 cm with coeval frame) as it hinges only on the presence of animals - an ox, a cow, two sheep and a goat - may constitute an exception in this specific vein, but it reflects the prevailing and constant practice of Philipp Peter Roos known as "Rosa da Tivoli...