Andrea Del Sarto

Copy from Andrea Del Sarto Holy Family Barberini 17th Century

The painting, done in oil on canvas, depicts the meeting between King David and Abigail, as narrated in the biblical text from the First Book of Samuel (I Samuel 25:1-34). David, left without food in the wilderness with his army, seeks relief from the wealthy Nabal, who contemptuously denies him any help, ungrateful of the benevolence he previously received from the king. Upon hearing the rejection, the ruler intends to take revenge by killing his entire lineage. Abigail, Nabal's beautiful and wise wife, decides to right the wrong and bring David plenty of food and gifts. In the king's presence the woman humbles herself, winning his forgiveness and benevolence. Soon afterwards widowed, she will in fact become his bride. The broad scene depicts the climax of the Old Testament episode, the moment when the woman prostrates herself before David and his servants prepare to deliver the gifts. The biblical event is here a pretext, as is customary in modern-age painting, for staging the colorful description of a sumptuous procession, which can be divided into two parts, almost two wings of a crowd divided specularly: on the left David with his dignitaries and the army; on the other, Abigail's retinue, handmaids, servants leading dromedaries and donkeys laden with food. The crowded group of figures is set in a natural proscenium: above a low horizon, barely hinted at by distant blue mountains, rises on the left side a craggy rocky cliff, the shelter of the army led by the ruler. The 'somatic intonation of the characters, as well as the choice of metallic chromatics and the play of light on the shiny fabrics refer to a clear Flemish matrix, particularly the influence of the frothy and sumptuous painting of Rubens and Van Dyck. As well set forth in the expert report prepared by Professor Giuseppe Sava, the work is to be attributed to Vincent Malò...

Oil on Canvas. North Italian school of the 17th century. The large painting presents as its subject a well-known Old Testament theme, the wealth of King Solomon, recounted in the Fir...

The scene depicts a feast within a park enclosed by walls with arched gateways opening onto the countryside, and adorned on the right with an amphora on a small column and in the center, behind the figures, with a gushing fountain, with statues of cherubs and shells. Two couples of richly dressed ladies and gentlemen entertain themselves gallantly, surrounded by servants; one of the men is playing the violin, crouching in front of his lady, who, flanked by the damsel, follows the melody on the score held up by the dark-haired man at her side, while two musicians accompany the playing with flute and a mandolin; the other couple, in an attitude of intimate dialogue, listens on the left, while on the right the hunter returning from the hunt also observes the scene. Particularly prominent in the scene is the rich dress of the lady in the center, characterized by the wide back folds falling from her shoulders to create a cape. Such a dress corresponds to what was called "robe à la Watteau," named after the French painter Antoine Watteau who first portrayed ladies wearing this pattern. Antoine Watteau (1684 -1721), a French painter considered one of the most influential French exponents of Rococo painting, was the forerunner of the pictorial genre of gallant scenes, a genre that developed in France from the late 1600s and continued throughout the following century. The gallant scenes could be considered as the aristocratic version of the genre scene: characterized by music, dances, pleasant conversations between ladies and gentlemen surrounded by servants, they tended to enhance the costumes, fashionable clothes, and environments of the upper class, conveying a kind of detachment from the real times and places, projecting the viewer into an almost theatrical atmosphere of gestures, looks, colors and stage lights. Moreover, Watteau, along with the Fêtes galantes cycles, also distinguished himself for those inspired by the theater, absorbing his passion for the scenes and characters of that milieu from Claude Gillot...

Olio su tela. La grande scena racconta la Deposizione di Cristo dalla Croce, condensando due momenti della narrazione: il Compianto della Madonna sul corpo del Cristo e la deposizion...

This oil painting on canvas, created by an artist from the 17th Century Flemish School, depicts one of the most significant scenes from Greco-Roman mythology: Aeneas saving his famil...

This Italian 19th century oil on alabastrer painting depicts an opulent interior in full ancient neoclassical Pompeian style with people festing. The figurative inner scene is painted on a rectangular alabaster slab and housed in a wonderful giltbronze frame resting on casted arrow feet. This is a single section of a bigger surtout de table. You can now use it as a decorative centrepiece on a table or on a console or turn it into a wall decoration. We can provide framing options in this case. The characters enjoy a rich banquet in an elaborate interior, the room renderings...

Everyday fishermen life is captured in this wonderful Italian impressionist late 19th century oil painting on thin board titled fishermen ashore. We love the neutral and natural colo...

Frank Arnold is thought by many to be one of the foremost abstract figurative painters and sculptors of our time. He is a living master whose work is considered to be both personal a...