16th Century Paintings

Without frame. Expertise by Prof. Antonio Vannugli A brightly lit gash opens up in the middle of the sky; within it appears the figure of the Virgin with the Child and beside her a...

Saint Jerome in the desert Cercle of Lambert Van Noort (1520-1571, Antwerp) Antwerp School, mid-16th century Oil on oak panel. Dimensions: panel h. 69 cm (27.16 in), l. 52.5 cm (20.6...

The painting, of which the subject is Saint Catherine from Alexandria with the breaking wheel used for her martyrdom, can be attributed to the mannerist artist of Emilia Romagna region Luca Longhi...

Portrait Of Czechoslovakian Theologian Jan Hus (1370-1415), 17th Century European School 17th Century European School portrait of Czech Theologian Jan Hus, oil on panel. Excellent...

This vigorous drawing has long been attributed to Polidoro da Caravaggio: The Abduction of the Sabine Women is one of the scenes that Polidoro depicted between 1525 and 1527 on the façade of the Milesi Palazzo in Rome. However, the proximity to another drawing inspired by this same façade, kept at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and to other drawings inspired by Polidoro kept at the Musée du Louvre, leads us to propose an attribution to Biagio Pupini, a Bolognese artist whose life remains barely known, despite the abundant number of drawings attributed to him. 1. Biagio Pupini, a Bolognese artist in the light of the Roman Renaissance The early life of Biagio Pupini, an important figure of the first half of the Cinquecento in Bologna - Vasari mentions him several times - is still poorly known. Neither his date of birth (probably around 1490-1495) nor his training are known. He is said to have been a pupil of Francesco Francia (1450 - 1517) and his name appears for the first time in 1511 in a contract with the painter Bagnacavallo (c. 1484 - 1542) for the frescoes of a church in Faenza. He then collaborated with Girolamo da Carpi, at San Michele in Bosco and at the villa of Belriguardo. He must have gone to Rome for the first time with Bagnacavallo between 1511 and 1519. There he discovered the art of Raphael, with whom he might have worked, and that of Polidoro da Caravaggio. This first visit, and those that followed, were the occasion for an intense study of ancient and modern art, as illustrated by his abundant graphic production. Polidoro da Caravaggio had a particular influence on the technique adopted by Pupini. Executed on coloured paper, his drawings generally combine pen, brown ink and wash with abundant highlights of white gouache, as in the drawing presented here. 2. The Abduction of the Sabine Women Our drawing is an adaptation of a fresco painted between 1525 and 1527 by Polidoro da Caravaggio on the façade of the Milesi Palace in Rome. These painted façades were very famous from the moment they were painted and inspired many artists during their stay in Rome. These frescoes are now very deteriorated and difficult to see, as the palace is in a rather narrow street. The episode of the abduction of the Sabine women (which appears in the centre of the photo above) is a historical theme that goes back to the origins of Rome and is recounted both by Titus Livius (Ab Urbe condita I,13), by Ovid (Fasti III, 199-228) and by Plutarch (II, Romulus 14-19). After killing his twin brother Romus, Romulus populates the city of Rome by opening it up to refugees and brigands and finds himself with an excess of men. Because of their reputation, none of the inhabitants of the neighbouring cities want to give them their daughters in marriage. The Romans then decide to invite their Sabine neighbours to a great feast during which they slaughter the Sabines and kidnap their daughters. The engraving made by Giovanni Battista Gallestruzzi (1618 - 1677) around 1656-1658 gives us a good understanding of the Polidoro fresco, allowing us to see how Biagio Pupini reworked the scene to extract this dynamic group. With a remarkable economy of means, Biagio Pupini takes over the left-hand side of the fresco and depicts in a very dense space two main groups, each consisting of a Roman and a Sabine, completed by a group of three soldiers in the background (which seems to differ quite significantly from Polidoro's composition). The balance of the drawing is based on a very strongly structured composition. The drawing is organised around a median vertical axis, which runs along both the elbow of the kidnapped Sabine on the left and the foot of her captor, and the two main diagonals, reinforced by four secondary diagonals. This diamond-shaped structure creates an extremely dynamic space, in which centripetal movements (the legs of the Sabine on the right, the arm of the soldier on the back at the top right) and centrifugal movements (the arm of the kidnapper on the left and the legs of the Sabine he is carrying away, the arm of the Sabine on the right) oppose each other, giving the drawing the appearance of a whirlpool around a central point of support situated slightly to the left of the navel of the kidnapper on the right. 3. Polidoro da Caravaggio, and the decorations of Roman palaces Polidoro da Caravaggio was a paradoxical artist who entered Raphael's (1483 - 1520) workshop at a very young age, when he oversaw the Lodges in the Vatican. Most of his Roman work, which was the peak of his career, has disappeared, as he specialised in facade painting, and yet these paintings, which are eminently visible in urban spaces, have influenced generations of artists who copied them abundantly during their visits to Rome. Polidoro Caldara was born in Caravaggio around 1495-1500 (the birthplace of Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio, who was born there in 1571), some forty kilometres east of Milan. According to Vasari, he arrived as a mason on the Vatican's construction site and joined Raphael's workshop around 1517 (at the age of eighteen according to Vasari). This integration would have allowed Polidoro to work not only on the frescoes of the Lodges, but also on some of the frescoes of the Chambers, as well as on the flat of Cardinal Bibiena in the Vatican. After Raphael's death in 1520, Polidoro worked first with Perin del Vaga before joining forces with Maturino of Florence (1490 - 1528), whom he had also known in Raphael's workshop. Together they specialised in the painting of palace façades. They were to produce some forty façades decorated with grisaille paintings imitating antique bas-reliefs. The Sack of Rome in 1527, during which his friend Maturino was killed, led Polidoro to flee first to Naples (where he had already stayed in 1523), then to Messina. It was while he was preparing his return to the peninsula that he was murdered by one of his assistants, Tonno Calabrese, in 1543. In his Vite, Vasari celebrated Polidoro as the greatest façade decorator of his time, noting that "there is no flat, palace, garden or villa in Rome that does not contain a work by Polidoro". Polidoro's facade decorations, most of which have disappeared as they were displayed in the open air, constitute the most important lost chapter of Roman art of the Cinquecento. The few surviving drawings of the painter can, however, give an idea of the original appearance of his murals and show that he was an artist of remarkable and highly original genius. 4. The façade of the Milesi Palace Giovanni Antonio Milesi, who commissioned this palace, located not far from the Tiber, north of Piazza Navona, was a native of the Bergamo area, like Polidoro, with whom he maintained close friendly ties. Executed in the last years before the Sack of Rome, around 1526-1527, the decoration of Palazzo Milesi is considered Polidoro's greatest decorative success. An engraving by Ernesto Maccari made at the end of the nineteenth century allows us to understand the general balance of this façade, which was still well preserved at the time. The frescoes were not entirely monochrome, but alternated elements in chiaroscuro simulating marble bas-reliefs and those in ochre simulating bronze and gold vases...

Dimensions: 41 x 32 cm without frame - 47 x 55.5 cm with frame Antique box frame made of solid wood and walnut burl. Publications: unpublished The painting by Bernardino Detti (14...

The Battle of the Novogorodians with the Suzdalians 16th century Size 50.5 x 47.5 x 3 cm. The icon is located in the Russian Federation. There is an expert opinion from leading R...

Formerly Canesso Collection, Paris. Publications: Bozzetti, modelletti, sketches: dalla collezione di Giorgio Baratti (From the Giorgio Baratti Collection) curated by Anna Orlando, ...

Antonio del Ceraiolo or 'the Ceraiolo (Active in Florence, second-fourth decade of the 16th century) Attributable The Annunciation Oil on canvas 99 x 137 cm. In a fine period box f...

Flemish painter of the 16th-17th century The Annunciation Oil on canvas 844 x 33 cm./ in frame 63 x 52 cm.) The work presents itself with a canonical iconographic and stylistic scheme, with the Archangel Gabriel devoutly delivering the supreme annunciation to the Virgin child, although there are some details that make the composition very interesting. Entering into the details of the study of the painting, of excellent workmanship, we can immediately appreciate a style rooted in the Flemish tradition, recognising in the compositional layout strong references to the great masters of the Renaissance such as Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Dieric Bouts and Hans Memling...

Circle of Michael Coxie (Malines, 1499 - Malines, 1592) Ecce Homo with Pontius Pilate Oil on panel Flemish school 16th-17th century 112 x 81 cm - framed 121 x 90 cm. The proposed p...

Oil on Board. Flemish school of the 16th century. The work bears a plaque at the base attributing it to Lambert Van Noort (1520 -1571), justified by the proximity to his painterly ma...

Portrait Of King Henry VIII (1491-1547) Of England, 16th Century circle of HANS HOLBEIN (1497-1543) 16th Century English court portrait of King Henry VIII as King of England, oil o...

Antique painting depicting the Face of Christ as Salvator Mundi Flemish painter, 16th-17th century Oil on copper 22 x 18 cm./ framed 42 x ...

Cornelis van Cleve, or Van Cleef (Antwerp, 1520 - 1567) workshop Flemish School, late 16th century Dance of Putti Oil on wood panel 51 x 108 cm. - framed 67 x 124 cm. Click HERE to...

The painting features the enthroned Madonna and Child, two praying angels, and Saints Nicholas of Tolentino, Augustine, Luke the Evangelist, and Monica, below an elegant canopy. The ...

Incredible triptych from the end of 15 century.

Coronation Portrait Of King Edward VI (1537-1553) as King Of England & Ireland, 16th Century English School - Oil on panel - circa 1547 Large 16th Century Coronation portrait of E...

Portrait Of King Edward VI (1537-1553) as Prince Of Wales, 16th Century English School - Oil on panel - circa 1547 Large 16th Century portrait of Edward VI as Prince Of Wales, oil...

Bartolomeo Passerotti ( Bologna 1529 – 3 giugno 1592) Ritratto di Gentiluomo con cane Olio su tavola, Sec. XVI, cm 84x69; con cornice 101x87 // Bartolomeo Passerotti (Bologna 1529...

Olio su tela. Il modello deriva da un'incisione di Marcantonio Raimondi su disegno di Raffaello, appositamente realizzato per l'opera grafica, e derivato da un dipinto posto nella Stanza della Segnatura (1513-1515) nei Musei Vaticani. Questo modello fu ripreso e variato successivamente sia in opere dipinte che in altre incisioni, in particolare in quella di Raphael Sadeler del 1589, attualmente presso il gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe dell'Accademia Carrara di Bergamo: il dipinto qui proposto difatti mostra le stesse modifiche apportate rispetto all'originale raffaellesco. Al centro della scena mitologica immersa in un paesaggio naturale, si trovano le tre dee che si contendevano il titolo di più bella: Giunone con il pavone...

Cristofano Rustici called il Rusticone was an artist active in Siena between the 16th and 17th century, son of Lorenzo Brazzi called il Rustico (Siena 1521-1572). Even if his artistic training started in the family workshop, he was mostly very influenced by the Flemish artist Bernhard van Rantwijk, who was also living in the Tuscan town at the same time. The subject of the four paintings are the Cardinal Virtues...

The painting represents Clelia crossing the Tiber. Clelia was a Roman heroine, who was given as a hostage, together with other girls, to the Etruscan king Porsenna during the peace n...

Oil on Board. Central-Italian school of the second half of the 1500s. The sacred scene of the Annunciation sees the two protagonist figures placed in the foreground in an interior th...

Giovan Battista Moroni (circle of) (Albino, 1520 – 1580 ca.) Portrait of a woman Oil on canvas, cm. 46 x 40 - with frame cm. 55,5 x 50,5 Antique shaped and gilded wooden cassetta frame. Publications: unpublished. The present portrait shows an adult woman, no longer young, as can be seen from her slightly blistered cheeks, but not elderly either. The suspicious and veiledly inquisitive gaze is well matched by the elegance of her extremely fashionable black clothes...

The Tempi Madonna, 16th Century After RAPHAEL (1482-1520) - early Christies stencil Large 16th Century Italian High Renaissance depiction of...

Provenance: Private Collection, South America Antonio Tempesta began his career in Florence, working on the decoration of the Palazzo Vecchio under the direction of Giorgio Vasari. He was a pupil first of Santi di Tito...

Holy family with an angel, workshop Pieter Coecke Van Aelst (Alost, 1502 - Bruxelles, 1550) Faithful to the traditions of the late Gothic and early Renaissance, our painting depicts ...

An Allegory of Spring, 16th Century Workshop Of Jacopo Bassano (1510-1592) Huge 16th Century Italian Old Master Allegory of Spring, oil on canvas. Excellent quality and condition ...

Portrait Of Eleanor Of Toledo, Duchess of Florence (1522-1562), 16th Century after AGNOLO BRONZINO (1503-1572) 16th century Italian Old Master court portrait of Eleanor Of Toledo,...

Head Portrait of a Man with Beard Flemish/ Dutch School, circa 1580-1620 period circle of Adriaen Thomasz. Key (Dutch, 1544, Antwerp – after 1589) oil on canvas, framed framed: 20 x ...

Oil on panel This painting, showing the Nursing Madonna, portrays the essence of maternal love and divine tenderness. The Christ child is cradled by the Madonna, her eyes are fille...

Oil on panel We are grateful to Koenraad Jonckheere for confirming the attribution after inspection of the original. He dates the work to circa 1570. The present portrait of a bearded man, arresting in its intimacy, capturing the contemplative gaze of the sitter, along with the intense naturalism with which his face is rendered, is an outstanding example of the oeuvre of the Antwerp master Adriaen Thomasz. Key. Attired in an expensive and modish ‘Burgundian black’ doublet...

Oil on panel The Master with the Parrot or the Master of the Parrot is the not name given to a group of Flemish painters who likely worked in a workshop in Antwerp in the first hal...

Virgin and Child Workshop of Pieter Coecke Van Aelst (Aelst, 1502- Brussels, 1550) 16th century Oil on oak panel Dimensions: panel: h. 71.5cm, W. 48.5 cm (28.15 in x 19.09 in) Later ...

Madonna, 16th Century circle of JOOS VAN CLEVE (1485-1540) 16th Century Netherlandish Antwerp School portrait of the Madonna, oil on panel from the circle of Joos Van Cleve. Exce...

Saint Catherine Of Alexandria, 16th Century Italian School - one of a pair 16th Century Italian School depiction of Saint Catherine Of...

Madonna & Child St Jerome St Francis, Archangel Michael, St John, Triptych 15th Century follower of BENVENUTO DI GIOVANNI (1436-1518) Sienese School Large 16th Century Italian Ren...

Early 17th century. Immaculate conception. Virgin with child and dragon. Technique: oil on wooden tablet. Painting from the school of central Italy : Tuscany or Umbria or Marche. ...

Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist and angels Circle of Joos Van Cleve (1485 – 1541) 16th century Antwerp school Oil on oak panel Dimensions: h. 32 cm (13 in.), w. 28.5 cm...

Portrait of Sultan Isa Çelebi (died 1403),identity inscribed in Latin. Portrait of Sultan Murad III (1546–1595), identity inscribed in Latin. The present paintings refer to the works attributed to a follower of Paolo Veronese in the Bayerische Staatsgemälde Sammlungen , Würzburg . The paintings are comparable and complementary to a set of 6 Turkish rulers sold in 2022 for 1,5 M. by Sothebys. Located at the crossroads of East and West, the Ottoman Empire absorbed a diverse range of influences, including Chinese, European, and Persian, to produce a distinctive and coherent artistic language throughout a range of decorative arts. Ottoman expansion into Eastern Europe and subsequent access to the silver mines of the Balkans between the 14th and 16th C. led to a rich and skilled tradition of Ottoman silverware, tiles, dishes, and other ceramic objects. From the 16th to 19th C. the production of decorative arts continued to flourish with the introduction of both rococo and baroque elements signalling an increasingly open attitude to all things European. The production of Orientalist paintings is rich in topographical landscapes of Istanbul, genre scenes, and portraits of Ottoman notables. Europe’s fascination with its powerful, Muslim neighbours inspired a wave of accounts and paintings of the Ottoman world. The taking of Constantinople in 1453 by the young Mehmet II ('The Conqueror’) not only sparked this interest, but the young Sultan himself, who invited European painters to his court, further fuelled this fashion. The period following his reign saw relations between the Republic of Venice and its powerful neighbour reach a state of relative calm, initiating a period of exchange and trade. The present portraits of the Sultans, depicted in three-quarter view and wearing a large turban and richly embroidered cloak...

Antichità Castelbarco SRLS is proud to present: Paolo Caliari known as Veronese (Verona 1528 - Venice 1588) Workshop/cercle Idyll between Venus and Adonis with Cupid Oil on canvas ...

Antichità Castelbarco SRLS is proud to present: Painter active in Rome late 16th - early 17th century Andromeda and the monster Oil on canvas 137 x 102 cm. - In frame 152 x 118 cm. The subject of the painting, derived from Ovid's Metamorphoses, is inspired by the myth of the princess Andromeda, daughter of the King of Ethiopia Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia. The heroine's misfortune was to have a mother who praised her beauty as superior even to that of the Nereids, the sea nymphs daughters of the god Poseidon. According to mythology, the girl was therefore chained to a cliff and offered as a sacrifice to the terrible monster sent to appease the wrath of the nymphs, offended by Cassiopeia's unforgivable pride. Consider that the depiction of this myth, and in particular its climax with Andromeda offered to the monster, had great fortune in Roman Baroque painting...

Ferrara school of the late sixteenth century - circle of Giuseppe Mazzuoli known as Bastarolo (Ferrara 1536 - 1589) St. Jerome penitent in the cave ...

Circle of Amico Aspertini Oil on panel, 59x31 cm. Provenance: Asta Pandolfini 8 marzo 2023 lot. 47. He was born in Bologna to a family of painters (including Giovanni Antonio Asperti...

Antichità Castelbarco SRLS is proud to present: Antonio Tempesta (Florence 1555 - Rome 1630) Battle scene with castle in the background Oil on canvas 81 x 130 cm Framed 99 x 130 E...

Rest of the Holy Family during the Flight into Egypt Workshop of Pieter Coecke Van Aelst (1502-1550) 16th century Flemish school Oil on oak panel, Dimensions : panel: h. 34.25 in., ...

Venus and Mars surprised by Vulcan, circa 1580, circle of Jacob de Backer ( Antwerp, 1545 - 1585) The subject of our work is derived from Ovid's metamo...

Two, large, stunningly painted, left and right, oil-on canvas, Italian paintings of the Emperor's Vespasian and Julius Caesar, with their names inscribed on the lower left hand corne...

Sacred Conversation: Madonna with child with St. John with idealized landscape background with mountains. Early XVI century. Oil on wooden panel of Venetian conifers. Marco Bello, attributed. (Venezia, 1470 - 1523, Udine), pupil and follower of Giovanni Bellini. Venetian school. Madonna with child with St. John with idealized landscape background with mountains. Dimentions: 57cm x 68cm x 6cm Beautiful late Renaissance frame...

Beyond life-sized, allegorical, Renaissance figural oil painting of Summer, featuring a nymph recessed in an alcove, swathed in drapery, wearing a foliate crown. In her right hand, a...

Oil on oak panel Image size: 20 1/2 x 23 1/2 inches (52 x 60 cm) Hand made frame Herri Met de Bles, also known as Henri Blès, Herri de Dinant and Herry de ...

Ippolito Scarsella, known as Lo Scarsellino (Ferrara, around 1550 - 1620) workshop Altarpiece depicting the Madonna and Child, St. James the Greater and the donor in armour Technique: oil on panel Measurements: 93 x 72 cm./with frame 109 x 86 cm. Provenance: Prato, Farsetti, auction of 28.10.2016, lot 261 (link) A majestic Madonna in Glory occupies the upper register of the canvas, seated on a blanket of iridescent clouds surrounded by angels, flanked by a cherub who scatters flowers contained in a cornucopia towards the infant Christ as a sign of abundance, naked and supported with both hands from the mother. In the lower part of the composition stands the figure of San Giacomo Maggiore, one of the twelve apostles, standing on the right side of the altarpiece, represented dressed in a humble tunic; one arm holds the open Gospel book, while the other holds a cross pilgrimage staff. A particular aspect of the table is the presence in the central part, to indicate its importance, of the figure of the donor, kneeling on a cushion, with his hands joined in prayer and his face observing the Virgin in an attitude of devotion, while on the opposite lectern is placed a prayer book; depicted with the features of a young leader in armor, with a sword and a rich iridescent red cloak, elements which, combined with his authoritarian composure, enhance his ennoblement. Unlike the medieval altarpieces, the knight is here included in the space of the painting and has proportionate dimensions to those of the other characters, returning to all intents and purposes in the sacred scene, with a pose that cannot but evoke the detail of the 'Montefeltro altarpiece' made by Piero della Francesca for Federico da Montefeltro, kneeling in front of the sacred group in the guise of a leader. On the right, the view recedes into depth highlighting the background of an urban landscape set on a hill behind which a mountain range stands out, with the peculiarity of the arched aqueduct that runs along the entire landscape. Presumably among these expanses were the donor's own possessions and his hometown. It is a quality table, imbued with the late Mannerist style still resistant in the second half of the 16th century, characterized by a 'sweet and affable religiosity, rendered through a manner of studied simplicity and grace', which highlights the unmistakable stylistic and chromatic connotations of the produced...

Provenance: Bradley Collection. Private Collection, Upperville, Virginia. Literature: Katlijne van der Stighelen and Hans Vlieghe, Rubens: Portraits of Unidentified and Newly Identified Sitters painted in Antwerp, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, vol. 19, pt. 3, London and Turnhout, 2021, under cat. no. 189, p. 161, and fig. 75. This painting had previously been considered to be by an anonymous Tuscan painter of the sixteenth century in the orbit of Agnolo Bronzino. While the painting does in fact demonstrate a striking formal and compositional similarity to Bronzino’s portraits—compare the nearly identical pose of Bronzino’s Portrait of a Young Man in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Fig. 1)—its style is completely foreign to Italian works of the period. That it is painted on an oak panel is further indication of its non-Italian origin. This portrait can in fact be confidently attributed to the Antwerp artist Huybrecht Beuckelaer. Huybrecht, the brother of Joachim Beuckelaer, has only recently been identified as the author of a distinct body of work formerly grouped under the name of the “Monogrammist HB.” In recent studies by Kreidl, Wolters, and Bruyn his remarkable career has been delineated: from its beginnings with Joachim in the workshop of Pieter Aertsen; to his evident travels to Italy where, it has been suggested, he came into contact with Bronzino’s paintings; to his return to Antwerp, where he seems to have assisted Anthonis Mor in painting costume in portraits; to his independent work in Antwerp (where he entered the Guild of Saint Luke in 1579); and, later to his career in England where, known as “Master Hubberd,” he was patronized by the Earl of Leicester. Our painting was recently published by Dr. Katlijne van der Stighelen and Dr. Hans Vlieghe in a volume of the Corpus Rubenianum, in which they write that the painting “has a very Italian air about it and fits convincingly within [Beuckelaer’s] oeuvre.” Stighelen and Vlieghe compare the painting with Peter Paul Ruben’s early Portrait of a Man, Possibly an Architect or Geographer in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in which the sitter holds a compass and wears a similarly styled doublet (Fig. 2). Huybrecht both outlived and travelled further afield than his brother Joachim, who made his career primarily in Antwerp. Whereas Joachim was the main artistic inheritor of their uncle and teacher, Pieter Aertson, working in similar style and format as a specialist in large-scale genre and still-life paintings, Huybrecht clearly specialized as a painter of portraits and was greatly influenced by the foreign artists and works he encountered on his travels. His peripatetic life and his distinctly individual hand undoubtedly contributed to the fact his career and artistic output have only recently been rediscovered and reconstructed. His periods abroad seem to have overlapped with the mature phase of his brother Joachim’s career, who enrolled in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke much earlier than his brother, establishing himself as an independent painter in 1560. Joachim’s activity was confined to the following decade and half, and his latest work dates from the last year of his life, 1574. Our portrait was likely produced in the late 1560s, a dating supported by the dendrochronological investigation performed by Dr. Peter Klein, which established that it is painted on an oak panel with an earliest felling date of 1558 and with a fabrication date of ca. 1566. This painting presents a portrait of an artist, almost certainly Huybrecht’s self-portrait. The young sitter is confidently posed in a striking patterned white doublet with a wide collar and an abundance of buttons. He stands with his right arm akimbo, his exaggerated hands both a trademark of Huybrecht and his brother Joachim’s art, as well as a possible reference to the “hand of the artist.” The figure peers out of the painting, interacting intimately and directly with the viewer, as we witness him posed in an interior, the tools and results of his craft visible nearby. He holds a square or ruler in his left hand, while a drawing compass...

Provenance: S. Spinelli Collection, Florence; their sale, Galleria Pesaro, Milan, July 11-14, 1928, lot 112 (unsold); reoffered Galleria Luigi Bellini, Florence, April 23-26, 1934, lot 132, as manner of Baldassare Peruzzi Dr. Giacomo Ancona, Florence, 1930s, and after 1939, San Francisco; thence by descent to his son: Mario Ancona, San Francisco; thence by descent to his children: Mario Ancona III and Victoria Ancona, San Francisco, until 1995; thence to: Phyllis Ancona Green, widow of Mario Ancona, Los Angeles (1995-2012) Literature: Donato Sanminiatelli, Domenico Beccafumi. Milan 1967, p. 170 (under paintings attributed to Beccafumi) Among the precious survivors of Renaissance secular paintings for domestic interiors are several unusual and particularly attractive panels painted in Siena at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries. These paintings depict exemplary figures from antiquity—heroes or heroines, as well as allegorical, literary, and mythological figures. For the most part, these panels have survived in groups of three, although it is possible that some of these works were painted either as part of larger series or as individual projects. One such trio by Beccafumi consists of two paintings now at the National Gallery, London (Marcia and Tanaquil) and a third in the Galleria Doria-Pamphilj, Rome (Cornelia). These were commissioned around 1517–1519 for the bedroom of Francesco di Camillo Petrucci in Siena and were most likely placed together as elements in the wall decoration (spalliere) or installed above the back of a bench or cassapanca. Another, earlier (ca. 1495–1500), set of three—Guidoccio Cozzarelli’s Hippo, Camilla, and Lucretia (Private Collection, Siena) survives with its original wooden framework—a kind of secular triptych. Judith, Sophonisba, and Cleopatra in the collection of the Monte dei Paschi, Siena, are by an anonymous artist close to Beccafumi called the “Master of the Chigi-Saracini Heroines.” Girolamo di Benvenuto’s Cleopatra, Tuccia, and Portia are dispersed (homeless, Prague, Chambery), and Brescianino’s Faith, Hope, and Charity are in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena. The present painting first appeared in the Spinelli sale in Florence in 1934, at which time it was sold with two panels of identical size and format. Each was catalogued as being by the “manner of Baldassare Peruzzi” and of unidentified subject. Of these, the painting depicting a male figure turned to the right has recently reappeared in a private Italian collection, while the location of the third work, portraying a cloaked figure turned three-quarters left, remains unknown. Our panel depicts the allegorical figure of Fortune. Here she is represented in typical fashion as a nude female figure balanced on a wheel (sometimes called the Rota Fortunae), her billowing drapery indicating that she is as changeable as the wind. The appearance of the Virgin and Child in the cloud at the upper right is an unusual addition to the iconography. The subjects of the two pendant male...

Lucas Cranach the Elder and Studio 1472-1553 German Moses and the Pillar of Cloud Oil on panel Moses and the Pillar of Cloud is a bold and evocative composition that showcases the signature intense color and intricate detail of Lucas Cranach the Elder’s celebrated oeuvre. The remarkable 16th-century oil on panel by Lucas Cranach and his studio captures the narrative moment when Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt and encounters God manifested through a large pillar of cloud. Moses stands at the precipice of a bridge and turns back to soldiers helping to lead the group of Israelites who huddle closely together. Cranach depicts Moses with his traditional iconography, rendering the rays of light on his head which came to be interpreted as "horns" in the translation of the Bible. Using his traditional walking staff, Moses gestures toward the pillar, seemingly acknowledging that God will protect the group as they cross the bridge to the other side, leaving exile and entering a promised land. In a nod to Cranach’s Germanic locale, he renders the figures and setting in a manner that feels decisively more akin to European aesthetics than those of the Red Sea. Soldiers wear elaborate, gothic suits of armor that recall the livery of Northern European guardsmen. The terrain appears more like a European forest giving way to a sweeping valley than the arid landscape the Israelites trekked through on their journey across the Red Sea. Though still clearly recounting a story from the Old Testament, Cranach renders the cast of characters and setting in an earthly, familiar manner. This aesthetic shift speaks to Cranach’s own changing beliefs as he found himself at the center of the Protestant Reformation. After first gaining recognition in 1505 as the official painter of Frederick the Wise, Cranach established a thriving painting and print studio in Wittenberg, Germany. Cranach was renowned for his court portraits and genre paintings and was also well known for his association with the famous protestant reformer Martin Luther, then under the protection of Frederick the Wise. As Wittenberg became a bastion of new religious thought, Cranach soon befriended Luther and played an active role in creating the printed materials that proliferated throughout the Reformation...

The painting represents the meeting of Jesus Christ with Saint Peter. Late 16th - early 17th century. Technique: oil on canvas. Antique wooden frame...

Oil on panel Flemish painting