Frederick Blakeslee

Toll of the Rocks

1943

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Right Saturday Evening Post Cover, April 19, 1930

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed and Dated Lower Left: Frank / Bensing / 31 Sight Size 33.00" x 28.00;" 31.50" x 37.00" The Country Gentleman...

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Right

Medium: Graphite on Paper (Right); Oil on Canvas (Left) Signature: Signed Lower Right on Canvas Sizes: 9.00" x 12.00"; 10.00" x 14.00" GRAPHITE DRAWINGS & OIL PORTRAIT - Caricature by George Wachsteter (1911-2004) of the Duke of Windsor...

Medium: Oil on Paper

Date: 1940 Medium: Pastel on Canvas Dimensions: 30.00" x 24.00" Signature: Signed Lower Left Image of a woman seated in front of a fire.

This widely referenced pair of paintings is one of Francesco Conti’s most successful productions. Francesco Conti is one of the finest painters of 18th-century Florence. In the shimmering colors typical of his best work, he represents two opposite characters from the Bible: the virtuous Judith, whose courage saves her people by cutting off the head of the invader Holofernes, and the depraved Salome, who under the influence of her mother becomes responsible for the beheading of the prophet John the Baptist. The artist's talent lies in his ability to treat these two macabre subjects with a light touch, presenting us with two attractive women who seem to twirl with glee amidst the severed heads... 1. Francesco Conti, the “Florentine Tiepolo” Francesco Conti is a major painter of the Florentine school of the 18th century; he can even probably be considered, along with Giovanni Domenico Ferretti (1692-1768), as one of the two main painters of the second quarter of the Florentine 18th century. Born in Florence in 1682, Francesco Conti began his apprenticeship in the workshop of Simone Pignoni (1611 - 1698), a disciple of Francesco Furini; he was also influenced by the Venetian Sebastiano Ricci. A protégé of Marquis Riccardi, he accompanied him to Rome between 1699 and 1705, where he frequented Carlo Maratta's studio. He settled permanently in Florence in 1705. Painted exclusively on canvas, the majority of his work consists of religious subjects, altarpieces or private devotional works. It is likely that Conti himself was a devout churchgoer, as evidenced by his affiliation, in the third decade of the eighteenth century, to the Society of the Disciples of Saint-John-the-Baptist, and his entry, at the end of his life, into the fraternity of the Venerable Society of the Holy Trinity. In Florence, Conti worked for the Grand Duchy's major patrons, including the last Medici - in particular Giangastone and Annamaria Luisa, Electress Palatine - and confirmed his role as a reference painter under the Lorraine Regency, as master of the Public Drawing School, which was closely linked to the institute responsible for the manufacture of semi-precious stone mosaics, then located in the Uffizi complex. Matteo Marangoni, an art critic of the early 20th century, praised his "brushwork full of elegance and true spirit of the 18th century", pointing out that Conti was "probably one of the best colorists" of the Florentine school of his time. These two characteristics led the art historian Paolo dal Poggetto to nickname him the "Florentine Tiepolo". 2. Judith and Salome, two biblical characters opposing each other These two paintings form a pair presenting two biblical episodes, which have in common the depiction of a "heroine" carrying the severed head of a man. While the Salome episode might at first appear to be an echo of the Old Testament story of Judith, each character is the exact opposite of the other. Judith, whose story is told in the Book of Judith, is a beautiful young widow from Bethulia who, accompanied by her maid, went into the camp of the invading Assyrians and won the confidence of Holofernes, the general commanding the enemy army. Invited to a great feast on the fourth evening, she took advantage of Holofernes' drunkenness to cut off his head. “She went up to the bedpost near Holofernes’ head, and took down his sword that hung there. She came close to his bed, took hold of the hair of his head, and said, “Give me strength today, O Lord God of Israel!” Then she struck his neck twice with all her might, and cut off his head. Next she rolled his body off the bed and pulled down the canopy from the posts. Soon afterward she went out and gave Holofernes’ head to her maid, who placed it in her food bag...

Oil on linen canvas - Framed 63.8 x 84 x 3.4 cm

Oil on linen canvas

Oil on canvas Karine Bartoli was born in 1971 in Ajaccio. She enrolled at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Marseille where she graduated in 1997. Since then she has ...

PROVENANCE Exhibited at Katarzyna Napiorkowska Gallery. The Gallery is a primary representative for this artist. The Gallery of Katarzyna Napiorkowska is one of the first private a...

HANNA BAKUŁA (born in 1950) Polish painter, stage designer and writer. Bakuła graduated with honors from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where she studied under such polish masters as J. Tarasin, E. Eibisch, A. Kobzdej. In 1981 she moved to New York and settled down on Manhattan. She painted, designed scenography and costumes for the avant-garde theatre "The Kitchen". These designs were praised by "The New York Times" as the best of the Off Broadway projects and won the first prize. She received a scholarship from the Guggenheim Foundation. In 1989 she came back to Poland. Since 1996 years Bakuła has organized Franz Schubert...