Unknown

Portrait Cavalier Paint Oil on canvas Portrait Old master 17th Century Italian

1630-1680

Giovanni Domenico Valentino (Rome 1630 - Imola 1708) Signed with the monogram G.D.V in the center right, on a majolica vase The pharmacist in his laboratory Oil on canvas, 73 x 66 cm In gilded and lacquered frame cm. 86 x 80 This work, depicting a fascinating laboratory interior with a pharmacist busy in the preparation of medicines, is part of the typical production of the Roman Gian Domenico Valentini, also known as Giovanni Domenico Valentino (Rome 1630 - Imola 1708). The canvas, which is signed with the monogram G.D.V in the center right on a majolica vase, should have been painted in Rome, where the painter worked from 1662 until his death, except in 1680-1681, when he worked in Imola and Ravenna. The use of models by Flemish artists who populated the Eternal City appears essential in the development of Valentini's painting. The use of Nordic models in the development of this type of pictorial genre, with interior scenes and elements of still life, had gained great fortune with the Roman client, leading to an almost serial production, but always of great evocative charm. . Giovanni Domenico Valentini distinguished himself in the artistic panorama of the Italian seventeenth century precisely for the peculiarity of his favorite subjects: they are mainly kitchen interiors or as in our case of a laboratory, where countless objects are piled up arranged in picturesque disorder: here the tools of a pharmacy, in copper and terracotta, vases or pourers in metal and clay, jars and albarelli in majolica, bottles, flasks, glasses, cauldrons, basins and other containers in copper and terracotta, as well as an open oven. The large background wall is occupied by an angular hanging shelf for jars and apothecary jars all arranged in a row, in the foreground the still life featured various pharmaceutical tools such as apothecary bottles, mortar bowls, jars and jars with handles as well as pots and copper vessels. Particularly striking from a chromatic point of view, and a typical piece of furniture of the painter, is the painting above the door frame, which depicts a landscape. The interiors of the Valentini, of which our painting is a valuable example, which display large quantities of objects or furnishings, are arranged with a wisely studied organization: the whole represented is arranged according to the dictates of a pre-ordered exhibition and appears so to speak 'on display', exhibited and organized according to the very personal intent of a painter who aims to ennoble everyday life and make it the emblem of his art. The interior of our pharmacy is very similar to a monogrammed version kept in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Palais Fesch, in Ajaccio (inv. 852-1-461) depicting a 'Young man visiting a pharmacy', in which the same elements, albeit varied: the half-open wardrobe...

Still life in a landscape with fruit and game Work of the late Roman Baroque of the late seventeenth / eaarly eighteenth century attributable to Giovanni Paolo Castelli, known as Spadino (Rome, 1659 - 1730) oil on canvas 62 x 76 cm., Framed 90 x 109 cm. An open-air setting, with a hilly landscape gash that opens into the distance in the central part, surrounds our beautiful canvas, which showcases a rich selection of game and fruit, arranged in the foreground near the point of view of the observer, occupying a large part of the visual field with their bright and festive colors. The style and quality of the work, like the pictorial technique of this still life, characterized by subtle luminous vibrations and a lively chroma, make it attributable to the Roman Giovanni Paolo Castelli, known as Lo Spadino (Rome, 1659 - 1730), one of the most important specialists of this pictorial genre of late Baroque Rome, which had a very successful career between the 17th and 18th centuries. Analyzing the rich and heterogeneous catalog of the Roman master, in fact, our canvas can be included among his rare works which, alongside a selection of fruit - among which stand out large melons, ripe figs, dark grapes and plums - we see a game advert, presumably as requested by a patron who loves hunting. Next to various birds, spoils of a profitable hunting trip, there is also a small green woodpecker, with the characteristic red spot on the head, and a nice rodent that terminates from behind the trunk. The painter abandons himself to a skilful and brilliant chromatic texture of the surfaces, through a pictorial material rendered with exceptional vibration in its luminous and 'tactile' body, fully respecting the taste of the full Roman Baroque. The quality appears excellent, distinguished by a skilful and brilliant chromatic texture of the surfaces, which appear almost vibrant thanks to a skilful drafting of the pictorial material. Inevitable and evident are the Flemish suggestions, which had influenced the Roman Baroque still life, in particular the work of Abraham Brueghel...

Andrea Scacciati (Florence 1642-1710) Composition of flowers within embossed vase (2 of 3) oil on canvas 130 x 90 cm In antique frame 145 x 105 cm. Work with expertise by Prof. Emi...

Tuscan painter active towards the end of the 16th century Portrait of Captain Niccolò Orsini (Pitigliano, 1442 - Lonigo, 1510), count of Pitigliano and Nola. Tuscany, end of the 16th century Oil on canvas, 64 x 47 cm., Framed 89 x 73 cm. The portrait we present to you shows the effigy of a vigorous high-ranking male figure in armor, in the most typical Renaissance pose, half-length and taken in profile, with his face and gaze turned to the side; the serious and intense expression and the facial features evoke at first glance the portraiture of early Florentine mannerism. He is Niccolò III Orsini (Pitigliano, 1442 - Lonigo, 1510), count of Pitigliano and Nola and son of Aldobrandino Orsini, famous leader and captain (or capitano di ventura) who lived between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, who served for the state Pontifical in Naples and Florence and above all for the Republic of Venice. Portraiture with these characters, which derives from ancient coinage, was used in the sixteenth century in the sequences of Portraits of Illustrious Men, both in painting and in sculpture. The profile portrait was in fact a genre reserved, according to the Renaissance tradition, for celebrations, presenting those characteristics of imperturbability typical of the military role covered. Our painting is a work created by an author active in Tuscany towards the end of the sixteenth century, adhering to those pictorial styles made famous by the portraitist Cristofano di Papi dell'Altissimo (1530-1605), a pupil of Bronzino and then of Pontormo, known for having created a collection of about 500 portraits of illustrious men, known as the 'Gioviana Series' (now in the Uffizi Gallery); and among these it is possible to identify one dedicated to Niccolò Orsini. Our painting is inspired, in particular, by a print taken from the collection of prints...