Wood Decorative Art

Custom Wooden Framed Map of 1700's Hundreds Paris, France. This reprint of the early antique map of the capital and most populous city in France has been deckled over a neutral col...

A highly decorative pair of hand painted marriage portraits depicting a man & woman in 17th century courtly attire. Both figures shown surrounded by flowering vines - he surrounded b...

Pair of Baroque Frames With Putti and Landscape carved in a single basswood board and composed of richly carved foliage and and chasing scrolls and intertwine until culminating at t...

Set of five German Engraved and parcel Gilt Mirror Panels, Each engraved mirrored panel portrays a different character with hand painting and gilt detailing.

L'essenza di questo quadro è rappresentato da un teschio messicano realizzato attraverso la tecnica dell' intarsio a mano che danno vita a dettagli intricati che sottolineano la comp...

Antique French hand-carved oak wood wall plaque with cherub's head, ca. 1900. An adorable Baroque-style hand-carved dark brown oak wood wall plaque or wall decoration depicting a hea...

An impressive and colorful pair of Italian 18th century Baroque st. patinated wood and Giltwood wall brackets. Each wonderfully carved wall bracket displays a stunning faux marble plinth below an impressive patinated wood Rocaille scrolled reserve. The scrolls protrude and follow the shape of the patinated green backplates accented with mottled patinated wood bands. At the top front of each wall bracket is an exceptional and large scale ebonized wood foliate reserve below the original patinated wood display shelves.

17th century Italian hand-painted ecclesiastical architectural element adorned with carnelian pebbles, gold-plated crystals, blue and yellow raw agate, and b...

A stunning and large scale Italian 18th century Baroque period Giltwood wall decor panel. At the center of this very decorative panel is a protruding central medallion with carved fo...

Section of a 18th century ship in oak with remnants of polychrome. Presumably part of a bowsprit. It is possible to hang this piece horizontally and vertically.

A pair of carved and gilded chestnut architectural elements. Both vigorously carved in high relief from a single section of chestnut with its first gilded finish still in place, the...

Pair of 17th Century Gilt silver framed saints. Silver saints are draped in period clothing and holding a book, against a red fabric background with ...

A very decorative pair of Italian 18th century Baroque st. Giltwood wall decor. Each pierced wall decor has a central double acanthus leaf with two 'C' and 'S' scrolled foliate branc...

A very decorative true pair of Italian 18th century Baroque st. faux painted Porphyry wall decor. Each wonderful carved architectural element is in the shape of an oil lamp and are r...

An extraordinary Original stealing engraving of the royal gallery in Munich and Schleissheim, hand-colored. Beautiful hand crafted gilded Frame. Dated at the backside with a label fr...

This 18th-century panel, crafted from nine earthenware tiles, showcases an intriguing depiction of a bird in a cage. The delicate white tiles contrast beautifully against the white b...

An impressive early 17th century wood relief carving of the Three Divine Virtues After Jan Pietersz Saenredam and Hendrik Goltzius First quarter of the 17th century; Northern Netherlands Approximate size: 35.5 x 50 cm (without frame); 53 x 67 cm (with frame) The present carving, of Flemish origin and from the first quarter of the 17th century, was executed during the Golden Age of Dutch art. The relief depicts the figures of Pietas, Caritas and Fides: the divine virtues of Hope, Charity and Faith. Each of the Virtues is articulated with exceptional care and the skill of a talented hand. The composition is bursting with energy, emphasized by the active putti surrounding its central protagonist and the emergence of the figures in the foreground, silhouetted against a cityscape with the upper horizon framed by clouds and rays-of-glory. The relief’s design is indebted to late 16th century Mannerist influences shown in the expressive postures of the figures and the billowing hair of Charity. Other Flemish artists approached this theme like the painters, Maarten de Vos, Maarten van Heemskerck, et al. However, our particular carving is an amalgam of three individual compositions engraved by Jan Pietersz Saenredam in 1601, and based on the designs of his mentor and long-time collaborator, Hendrik Goltizius (presumably following inspired Latin prose conceived by the Haarlem Humanist, Cornelis Schonaeus). The relief is set in an elaborate checkered, wood-inlaid frame but its scale and shape suggest it probably once formed part of an elaborate Beeldenkast or impressive Dutch oak cupboard...

A fine Italian 19th century oil painting on canvas "La Madonna della Seggiola" after Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino 1483-1520). The circular painted canvas depicting a seated Ma...

A very fine Italian 18th century oil on canvas "Madonna and Child" after Giovanni Lanfranco (Italian, 1582-1647). The young Virgin Mary attending to...

Two beautiful antique and light friezes in gilded wood: one is cm. 40x16,5 x depth 3. The other one is cm. 36 x 30,5 x depth 3,5. To put where you want.

A very fine Italian 17th century oval oil on canvas "Head of Christ Crowned with Thorns" Circle of Pierre Mignard (French, 1612-1695) within...

A Fine Italian 19th Century Oil Painting on Canvas "La Madonna della Seggiola" after Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino 1483-1520). The circular painted canvas depicting a seated Madonna holding an infant Jesus Christ next to a child Saint John the Baptist, all within a massive carved two-tone gilt wood, gilt-patinated and gesso frame, which is identical to the frame on Raphael's original artwork. This painting is a 19th Century copy of Raphael's Madonna della Seggiola painted in 1514 and currently exhibited and part of the permanent collection at the Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina, Florence, Italy. The bodies of the Virgin, Christ, and the boy Baptist fill the whole picture. The tender, natural looking embrace of the Mother and Child, and the harmonious grouping of the figures in the round, have made this one of Raphael's most popular Madonnas. The isolated chair leg is reminiscent of papal furniture, which has led to the assumption that Leo X himself commissioned the painting. Circa: 1890-1900. Subject: Religious painting Painting diameter: 28 inches (71.1 cm) Frame height: 55 1/8 inches (140 cm) Frame width: 46 inches (116.8 cm) Frame depth: 5 1/8 inches (13 cm) Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Italian, March 28 or April 6, 1483 - April 6, 1520), known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop and, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body of work. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career. The best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael's more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models. His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles, first described by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria, then a period of about four years (1504–1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence, followed by his last hectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working for two Popes and their close associates. Raphael was born in the small but artistically significant central Italian city of Urbino in the Marche region, where his father Giovanni Santi was court painter to the Duke. The reputation of the court had been established by Federico III da Montefeltro, a highly successful condottiere who had been created Duke of Urbino by the Pope - Urbino formed part of the Papal States - and who died the year before Raphael was born. The emphasis of Federico's court was rather more literary than artistic, but Giovanni Santi was a poet of sorts as well as a painter, and had written a rhymed chronicle of the life of Federico, and both wrote the texts and produced the decor for masque-like court entertainments. His poem to Federico shows him as keen to show awareness of the most advanced North Italian painters, and Early Netherlandish artists as well. In the very small court of Urbino he was probably more integrated into the central circle of the ruling family than most court painters. Federico was succeeded by his son Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, who married Elisabetta Gonzaga, daughter of the ruler of Mantua, the most brilliant of the smaller Italian courts for both music and the visual arts. Under them, the court continued as a centre for literary culture. Growing up in the circle of this small court gave Raphael the excellent manners and social skills stressed by Vasari. Court life in Urbino at just after this period was to become set as the model of the virtues of the Italian humanist court through Baldassare Castiglione's depiction of it in his classic work The Book of the Courtier, published in 1528. Castiglione moved to Urbino in 1504, when Raphael was no longer based there but frequently visited, and they became good friends. He became close to other regular visitors to the court: Pietro Bibbiena and Pietro Bembo, both later cardinals, were already becoming well known as writers, and would be in Rome during Raphael's period there. Raphael mixed easily in the highest circles throughout his life, one of the factors that tended to give a misleading impression of effortlessness to his career. He did not receive a full humanistic education however; it is unclear how easily he read Latin. Early Life and Works His mother Màgia died in 1491 when Raphael was eight, followed on August 1, 1494 by his father, who had already remarried. Raphael was thus orphaned at eleven; his formal guardian became his only paternal uncle Bartolomeo, a priest, who subsequently engaged in litigation with his stepmother. He probably continued to live with his stepmother when not staying as an apprentice with a master. He had already shown talent, according to Vasari, who says that Raphael had been "a great help to his father". A self-portrait drawing from his teenage years shows his precocity. His father's workshop continued and, probably together with his stepmother, Raphael evidently played a part in managing it from a very early age. In Urbino, he came into contact with the works of Paolo Uccello, previously the court painter (d. 1475), and Luca Signorelli, who until 1498 was based in nearby Città di Castello. According to Vasari, his father placed him in the workshop of the Umbrian master Pietro Perugino as an apprentice "despite the tears of his mother". The evidence of an apprenticeship comes only from Vasari and another source, and has been disputed—eight was very early for an apprenticeship to begin. An alternative theory is that he received at least some training from Timoteo Viti, who acted as court painter in Urbino from 1495.Most modern historians agree that Raphael at least worked as an assistant to Perugino from around 1500; the influence of Perugino on Raphael's early work is very clear: "probably no other pupil of genius has ever absorbed so much of his master's teaching as Raphael did", according to Wölfflin. Vasari wrote that it was impossible to distinguish between their hands at this period, but many modern art historians claim to do better and detect his hand in specific areas of works by Perugino or his workshop. Apart from stylistic closeness, their techniques are very similar as well, for example having paint applied thickly, using an oil varnish medium, in shadows and darker garments, but very thinly on flesh areas. An excess of resin in the varnish often causes cracking of areas of paint in the works of both masters. The Perugino workshop was active in both Perugia and Florence, perhaps maintaining two permanent branches. Raphael is described as a "master", that is to say fully trained, in December 1500. His first documented work was the Baronci altarpiece for the church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in Città di Castello, a town halfway between Perugia and Urbino. Evangelista da Pian di Meleto, who had worked for his father, was also named in the commission. It was commissioned in 1500 and finished in 1501; now only some cut sections and a preparatory drawing remain. In the following years he painted works for other churches there, including the Mond Crucifixion (about 1503) and the Brera Wedding of the Virgin (1504), and for Perugia, such as the Oddi Altarpiece. He very probably also visited Florence in this period. These are large works, some in fresco, where Raphael confidently marshals his compositions in the somewhat static style of Perugino. He also painted many small and exquisite cabinet paintings in these years, probably mostly for the connoisseurs in the Urbino court, like the Three Graces and St. Michael, and he began to paint Madonnas and portraits. In 1502 he went to Siena at the invitation of another pupil of Perugino, Pinturicchio, "being a friend of Raphael and knowing him to be a draughtsman of the highest quality" to help with the cartoons, and very likely the designs, for a fresco series in the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedral. He was evidently already much in demand even at this early stage in his career. Influence of Florence Raphael led a "nomadic" life, working in various centres in Northern Italy, but spent a good deal of time in Florence, perhaps from about 1504. Although there is traditional reference to a "Florentine period...

Mesmerizing French still life oil painting on board. The midcentury painting depicts a pheasant on a tablecloth with green cabbage. Amazing detail and brushwork set in a distressed g...

A Fine Italian 19th Century Oil Painting on Canvas "La Madonna della Seggiola" after Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino 1483-1520). The circular painted canvas depicting a seated Madonna holding an infant Jesus Christ next to a child Saint John the Baptist, all within a massive carved gilt wood and gesso frame, which is identical to the frame on Raphael's original artwork. This painting is a 19th Century copy of Raphael's Madonna della Seggiola painted in 1514 and currently exhibited and part of the permanent collection at the Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina, Florence, Italy. The bodies of the Virgin, Christ, and the boy Baptist fill the whole picture. The tender, natural looking embrace of the Mother and Child, and the harmonious grouping of the figures in the round, have made this one of Raphael's most popular Madonnas. The isolated chair leg is reminiscent of papal furniture, which has led to the assumption that Leo X himself commissioned the painting. A retailer's label reads " Fred K/ Keer's Sons - Framers and Fine Art Dealers - 917 Broad St. Newark, N.J." - Another label from the gilder reads "Carlo Bartolini - Doratore e Verniciatori - Via Maggio 1924 - Firenze". Circa: 1890-1900. Subject: Religious painting Canvas diameter: 28 inches (71.1 cm) Frame height: 54 inches (137.2 cm) Frame width: 42 1/2 inches (108 cm) Frame depth: 5 1/2 inches (14 cm) Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Italian, March 28 or April 6, 1483 - April 6, 1520), known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop and, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body of work. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career. The best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael's more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models. His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles, first described by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria, then a period of about four years (1504–1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence, followed by his last hectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working for two Popes and their close associates. Raphael was born in the small but artistically significant central Italian city of Urbino in the Marche region, where his father Giovanni Santi was court painter to the Duke. The reputation of the court had been established by Federico III da Montefeltro, a highly successful condottiere who had been created Duke of Urbino by the Pope - Urbino formed part of the Papal States - and who died the year before Raphael was born. The emphasis of Federico's court was rather more literary than artistic, but Giovanni Santi was a poet of sorts as well as a painter, and had written a rhymed chronicle of the life of Federico, and both wrote the texts and produced the decor for masque-like court entertainments. His poem to Federico shows him as keen to show awareness of the most advanced North Italian painters, and Early Netherlandish artists as well. In the very small court of Urbino he was probably more integrated into the central circle of the ruling family than most court painters. Federico was succeeded by his son Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, who married Elisabetta Gonzaga, daughter of the ruler of Mantua, the most brilliant of the smaller Italian courts for both music and the visual arts. Under them, the court continued as a centre for literary culture. Growing up in the circle of this small court gave Raphael the excellent manners and social skills stressed by Vasari. Court life in Urbino at just after this period was to become set as the model of the virtues of the Italian humanist court through Baldassare Castiglione's depiction of it in his classic work The Book of the Courtier, published in 1528. Castiglione moved to Urbino in 1504, when Raphael was no longer based there but frequently visited, and they became good friends. He became close to other regular visitors to the court: Pietro Bibbiena and Pietro Bembo, both later cardinals, were already becoming well known as writers, and would be in Rome during Raphael's period there. Raphael mixed easily in the highest circles throughout his life, one of the factors that tended to give a misleading impression of effortlessness to his career. He did not receive a full humanistic education however; it is unclear how easily he read Latin. Early Life and Works His mother Màgia died in 1491 when Raphael was eight, followed on August 1, 1494 by his father, who had already remarried. Raphael was thus orphaned at eleven; his formal guardian became his only paternal uncle Bartolomeo, a priest, who subsequently engaged in litigation with his stepmother. He probably continued to live with his stepmother when not staying as an apprentice with a master. He had already shown talent, according to Vasari, who says that Raphael had been "a great help to his father". A self-portrait drawing from his teenage years shows his precocity. His father's workshop continued and, probably together with his stepmother, Raphael evidently played a part in managing it from a very early age. In Urbino, he came into contact with the works of Paolo Uccello, previously the court painter (d. 1475), and Luca Signorelli, who until 1498 was based in nearby Città di Castello. According to Vasari, his father placed him in the workshop of the Umbrian master Pietro Perugino as an apprentice "despite the tears of his mother". The evidence of an apprenticeship comes only from Vasari and another source, and has been disputed—eight was very early for an apprenticeship to begin. An alternative theory is that he received at least some training from Timoteo Viti, who acted as court painter in Urbino from 1495.Most modern historians agree that Raphael at least worked as an assistant to Perugino from around 1500; the influence of Perugino on Raphael's early work is very clear: "probably no other pupil of genius has ever absorbed so much of his master's teaching as Raphael did", according to Wölfflin. Vasari wrote that it was impossible to distinguish between their hands at this period, but many modern art historians claim to do better and detect his hand in specific areas of works by Perugino or his workshop. Apart from stylistic closeness, their techniques are very similar as well, for example having paint applied thickly, using an oil varnish medium, in shadows and darker garments, but very thinly on flesh areas. An excess of resin in the varnish often causes cracking of areas of paint in the works of both masters. The Perugino workshop was active in both Perugia and Florence, perhaps maintaining two permanent branches. Raphael is described as a "master", that is to say fully trained, in December 1500. His first documented work was the Baronci altarpiece for the church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in Città di Castello, a town halfway between Perugia and Urbino. Evangelista da Pian di Meleto, who had worked for his father, was also named in the commission. It was commissioned in 1500 and finished in 1501; now only some cut sections and a preparatory drawing remain. In the following years he painted works for other churches there, including the Mond Crucifixion (about 1503) and the Brera Wedding of the Virgin (1504), and for Perugia, such as the Oddi Altarpiece. He very probably also visited Florence in this period. These are large works, some in fresco, where Raphael confidently marshals his compositions in the somewhat static style of Perugino. He also painted many small and exquisite cabinet paintings in these years, probably mostly for the connoisseurs in the Urbino court, like the Three Graces and St. Michael, and he began to paint Madonnas and portraits. In 1502 he went to Siena at the invitation of another pupil of Perugino, Pinturicchio, "being a friend of Raphael and knowing him to be a draughtsman of the highest quality" to help with the cartoons, and very likely the designs, for a fresco series in the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedral. He was evidently already much in demand even at this early stage in his career. Influence of Florence Raphael led a "nomadic" life, working in various centres in Northern Italy, but spent a good deal of time in Florence, perhaps from about 1504. Although there is traditional reference to a "Florentine period...

A light-brown, green antique Austrian Baroque oil on canvas painting by Franz Xaver Hornöck in a hand crafted original black, partly gilded wooden frame, in good condition. The vinta...

Pair of decorative 'Flower Garden' panels in plaster by British Master craftsman Geoffrey Preston MBE. The designs for these spring from a series of drawings in one of the artist's sketchbooks. The decoration was modelled in clay onto a clay base, using fingers, thumbs and small boxwood tools. The clay base enabled Preston to draw into the background, as well as build up from it, which gives a greater depth and emphasis to the modelling. A silicon mould was made from the completed models, and from this plaster casts can be taken. He uses Herculite No 2 plaster with burlap (hessian) and timber lathes to reinforce. Each pair is cast to order and signed and numbered on the reverse. The 'Flower Garden' panels are original works. Preston's aim is to use the fluid character of clay to make poetry in light and shadow in plaster. There is a strong influence of flowers and plant forms in his work, often in the context of architectural elements. He is conscious of proportion and the language of gesture, which is demonstrated in the flowing nature and harmony evident in his work. Geoffrey Preston MBE is a Master of traditional plaster-relief techniques who draws on eighteenth-century decorative art and sculpture, but combines it with his contemporary eye for design. He cites Giacomo Serpotta of Sicily and Egid Qurin Asam of Bavaria as two of the greatest influences on his work, both of whom stretched the boundaries of what people thought possible to sculpt in plaster during the Late Baroque period. In addition, he admires painter Rex Whistler and wood engravers, Charles Tunnicliffe and Joan Hassall...

'Sea Garden' panels in plaster by British Master craftsman Geoffrey Preston MBE. The designs for this pair of decorative panels spring from the series of drawings the artist made for the The Goring...

Important oil on panel by the great Dutch artist Philips Wouwerman (also Wouwermans) (1619 – 1668) a painter of hunting, landscape and battle scenes....

A rare pair of Flemish 18th century "Verre Églomisé" Reverse Glass Paintings, each depicting riverfront scenes with figures, fishermen castles, co...

Niche. Gilded and polychrome pine wood. Spain, 17th century. Niche made of carved and gilded pine wood, decorated with moldings, a venerated shape and plant elements in the upper p...

Serpent & Galleon, Ink on Paper, in an 18th Century GiltWood Frame.

Italian antique frieze in hand-carved wood and gilded gold leaf. Very rare. (See my published ancient friezes). You can hang it on the headboard, on a...

Carved giltwood wall torchere candle holder, Italy, 19th century-1930s Hand-carved gold gilt wood candlestick sconce with wrought iron details. This w...

Early 17th century, French hand colored equestrian engraving. After Antoine de Pluvinel (French, 1552-1620), "Henry IV, Mounted", figure 42 from "L'Instruction du Roy en l'Exercice de Monter a Cheval", c. 1625, matted and framed under UF-3 plexiglass (blocks approx. 97% of UV) , gallery label verso. Figures from this publication have sold at Christie's. Those were not hand colored. A highly detailed engraving with the French King Henry 1V the central figure. Mounted on horseback, Le Roy (the King) is watched by no less than 10 courtiers some of whom are mounted on horseback, all of which are named in the engraving. Antoine de Pluvinel (1552, Crest, Dauphine - 24 August 1620) was the first of the French riding masters, and has had great influence on modern dressage. He wrote L’Instruction du Roy en L'exercice de Monter à Cheval ("instruction of the King in the art of riding"), was tutor to King Louis XIII, and is credited with the invention of using two pillars, as well as using shoulder-in to increase suppleness. In 1594, Pluvinel founded the "Academie d'Equitation" near what is now Place des Pyramides. There, the French nobility was trained not only in horsemanship, but also in all the accomplishments (dancing, fashionable dressing, etc.) It can be said that Pluvinel's influence on the aristocracy lasted from the late 16th century to the 17th century. Richelieu, the future Prime Minister of King Louis XIII attended the Academie; so did William, Duke of Cavendish. Pluvinel's book was published posthumously by the Flemish engraver Crispijn van de Passe II and the royal valet de chambre...

Italian Salvator Rosa last 17th century giltwood frame. Internal measurements cm 20 x 30 Pure example of Italian Salvator Rosa gild wood frame of 17th century. "Salvator Rosa" is th...

Rare wooden antique garland from the beautiful Val Gardena, authentic '700 period - May be an overdoor , over mirror or over a padded headboard. M/1523.

Giltwood Framed Limoges Enamel after François Boucher 'The Bird Catchers' France, Circa 1880s Framed in an elaborate hand carved pierced and giltwood t...

Italian ebonized frame, tortoiseshell and engraved bone, 19th century. Measures: 52 x 41cm 39.5 x 29.5cm Very good conditions.

Large antique gilded frame. finely carved in wood and golden with fine gold. circa 1900. measures: 120x105 and 77x64 cm good condition.

This large cartouche panel was carved from wood and hand-painted with a central coat of arms in Italy during the 1700’s. Inspired by a 16th century French style shield, the escutcheo...

Salvator Rosa last 17th century giltwood frame. Internal measurements cm 32 x 41 Pure example of Italian Salvator Rosa gild wood frame of 17th century. "Salvator Rosa" is the fa...

Salvator Rosa last 17th century giltwood frame. Internal measurements cm 24 x 32.5 Pure example of Italian Salvator Rosa gild wood frame of 17th century. "Salvator Rosa" is the famo...

Grand Baroque composition made in Naples in the mid-17th century intended for the private chapel of a noble Neapolitan family. In the early nineteenth century on the finely executed ...

Salvator Rosa last 17th century “Mecca” giltwood frame. Internal measurements cm 54.5 x 65. Pure example of Italian Salvator Rosa gild wood frame of 17th century. "Salvator Rosa...

A beautiful painting of the Italian school from the second half of the 17th century. The religious subject depicts the Virgin Mary with Jesus and Saint...

19th C. carved painted & parcel gilt architectural element. The piece is painted in antique white with 22K gold leaf details throughout. There is also a metal stem of flowers in the ...

A fine Italian 19th century oil painting on canvas "La Madonna della Seggiola" after Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino 1483-1520) The circular canvas depicting a seated Madonna holding an infant Jesus Christ next to a child Saint John the Baptist, all within a massive carved gilt wood and gesso frame (all high quality gilt is original) which is identical to the frame on Raphael's original artwork. This painting is a 19th Century copy of Raphael's Madonna della Seggiola painted in 1514 and currently exhibited and part of the permanent collection at the Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina, Florence, Italy. The bodies of the Virgin, Christ, and the boy Baptist fill the whole picture. The tender, natural looking embrace of the Mother and Child, and the harmonious grouping of the figures in the round, have made this one of Raphael's most popular Madonnas. The isolated chair leg is reminiscent of papal furniture, which has led to the assumption that Leo X himself commissioned the painting, circa 1890-1900. Subject: Religious painting Measures: Canvas height: 29 1/4 inches (74.3 cm) Canvas width: 29 1/4 inches (74.3 cm) Painting diameter: 28 1/4 inches (71.8 cm) Frame height: 57 7/8 inches (147 cm) Frame width: 45 1/2 inches (115.6 cm) Frame depth: 5 1/8 inches (13 cm).   Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Italian, March 28 or April 6, 1483 - April 6, 1520), known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop and, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body of work. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career. The best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael's more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models. His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles, first described by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria, then a period of about four years (1504–1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence, followed by his last hectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working for two Popes and their close associates. Raphael was born in the small but artistically significant central Italian city of Urbino in the Marche region, where his father Giovanni Santi was court painter to the Duke. The reputation of the court had been established by Federico III da Montefeltro, a highly successful condottiere who had been created Duke of Urbino by the Pope - Urbino formed part of the Papal States - and who died the year before Raphael was born. The emphasis of Federico's court was rather more literary than artistic, but Giovanni Santi was a poet of sorts as well as a painter, and had written a rhymed chronicle of the life of Federico, and both wrote the texts and produced the decor for masque-like court entertainments. His poem to Federico shows him as keen to show awareness of the most advanced North Italian painters, and Early Netherlandish artists as well. In the very small court of Urbino he was probably more integrated into the central circle of the ruling family than most court painters. Federico was succeeded by his son Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, who married Elisabetta Gonzaga, daughter of the ruler of Mantua, the most brilliant of the smaller Italian courts for both music and the visual arts. Under them, the court continued as a centre for literary culture. Growing up in the circle of this small court gave Raphael the excellent manners and social skills stressed by Vasari. Court life in Urbino at just after this period was to become set as the model of the virtues of the Italian humanist court through Baldassare Castiglione's depiction of it in his classic work The Book of the Courtier, published in 1528. Castiglione moved to Urbino in 1504, when Raphael was no longer based there but frequently visited, and they became good friends. He became close to other regular visitors to the court: Pietro Bibbiena and Pietro Bembo, both later cardinals, were already becoming well known as writers, and would be in Rome during Raphael's period there. Raphael mixed easily in the highest circles throughout his life, one of the factors that tended to give a misleading impression of effortlessness to his career. He did not receive a full humanistic education however; it is unclear how easily he read Latin. Early Life and Works His mother Màgia died in 1491 when Raphael was eight, followed on August 1, 1494 by his father, who had already remarried. Raphael was thus orphaned at eleven; his formal guardian became his only paternal uncle Bartolomeo, a priest, who subsequently engaged in litigation with his stepmother. He probably continued to live with his stepmother when not staying as an apprentice with a master. He had already shown talent, according to Vasari, who says that Raphael had been "a great help to his father". A self-portrait drawing from his teenage years shows his precocity. His father's workshop continued and, probably together with his stepmother, Raphael evidently played a part in managing it from a very early age. In Urbino, he came into contact with the works of Paolo Uccello, previously the court painter (d. 1475), and Luca Signorelli, who until 1498 was based in nearby Città di Castello. According to Vasari, his father placed him in the workshop of the Umbrian master Pietro Perugino as an apprentice "despite the tears of his mother". The evidence of an apprenticeship comes only from Vasari and another source, and has been disputed—eight was very early for an apprenticeship to begin. An alternative theory is that he received at least some training from Timoteo Viti, who acted as court painter in Urbino from 1495.Most modern historians agree that Raphael at least worked as an assistant to Perugino from around 1500; the influence of Perugino on Raphael's early work is very clear: "probably no other pupil of genius has ever absorbed so much of his master's teaching as Raphael did", according to Wölfflin. Vasari wrote that it was impossible to distinguish between their hands at this period, but many modern art historians claim to do better and detect his hand in specific areas of works by Perugino or his workshop. Apart from stylistic closeness, their techniques are very similar as well, for example having paint applied thickly, using an oil varnish medium, in shadows and darker garments, but very thinly on flesh areas. An excess of resin in the varnish often causes cracking of areas of paint in the works of both masters. The Perugino workshop was active in both Perugia and Florence, perhaps maintaining two permanent branches. Raphael is described as a "master", that is to say fully trained, in December 1500. His first documented work was the Baronci altarpiece for the church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in Città di Castello, a town halfway between Perugia and Urbino. Evangelista da Pian di Meleto, who had worked for his father, was also named in the commission. It was commissioned in 1500 and finished in 1501; now only some cut sections and a preparatory drawing remain. In the following years he painted works for other churches there, including the Mond Crucifixion (about 1503) and the Brera Wedding of the Virgin (1504), and for Perugia, such as the Oddi Altarpiece. He very probably also visited Florence in this period. These are large works, some in fresco, where Raphael confidently marshals his compositions in the somewhat static style of Perugino. He also painted many small and exquisite cabinet paintings in these years, probably mostly for the connoisseurs in the Urbino court, like the Three Graces and St. Michael, and he began to paint Madonnas and portraits. In 1502 he went to Siena at the invitation of another pupil of Perugino, Pinturicchio, "being a friend of Raphael and knowing him to be a draughtsman of the highest quality" to help with the cartoons, and very likely the designs, for a fresco series in the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedral. He was evidently already much in demand even at this early stage in his career. Influence of Florence Raphael led a "nomadic" life, working in various centres in Northern Italy, but spent a good deal of time in Florence, perhaps from about 1504. Although there is traditional reference to a "Florentine period...

Late 17th century oil on joined wood panel interpretation of The Vision of Saint Hubertus by Albrecht Durer. It was painted in 1501 and became a very po...

17th Century Italian Flemish oil on canvas painting depicting the Adoration of the Magi. Early Flemish painting was contemporary to the development of the early Renaissance in Italy. In the middle of the 15th century Italy...

Amazing pair of baroque cornucopias, with painted glass, s. XVIII, Spanish origin, Andalusian school (Córdoba) Outstanding pair of Cornucopias in carved wood and gilwood decorated w...

Hamilton Hamilton (American, 1847-1928) A large and impressive oil on canvas "Othello and Desdemona" after the William Shakespeare's play "Othe...

Late 17th Century Russian Orthodox Icon of the Nativity of the Mother of God painted over gold leaf and gesso laid on a wooden board. It has been framed with a gold gilded museum mou...

A really gutsy and interesting early 17th century carved wood panel. If this kind of thing appeals to you, it does to me, than this is a compelling example of early carving and the p...

Silver and gold gilt decorative sculpture pediment with scroll work, sunflowers and leaves. Could be used over a mirror, bed as corona or door having the right width or above headboa...

Early 17th century German oil painting on chamfered oak panel by Maller Michael Nagel signed in gilt on hem of cloak. The date 1602 is on the edge of the ...

Gilt-framed oil painting on board, signed "W. Mulready." Mulready was an Irish painter who worked in London, and a member of the Royal Academy, whose work today hangs in the V&A Muse...

A fine and large 19th century oil on canvas after Bartolomé Esteban Murrillo's (Spanish, 1617-1682) "Beggar Boys Playing Dice" (The original work by Murillo was painted in 1675). The impressive artwork depicts two young boys playing dice while another eats a piece of fruit as his dog watches on., within an ornate gildwood and gesso frame bearing a label from the faming company Bigelow & Jordan. The original work by Murillo is currently at the Alte Pinakothek Museum in Munich, Germany. The present work is signed: L. Rüber. Circa: Munich, Late 19th Century. Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (born late December 1617, baptized January 1, 1618 – April 3, 1682) was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children. These lively, realist portraits of flower girls, street urchins, and beggars constitute an extensive and appealing record of the everyday life of his times. Murillo was born to Gaspar Esteban and María Pérez Murillo. He may have been born in Seville or in Pilas, a smaller Andalusian town. It is clear that he was baptized in Seville in 1618, the youngest son in a family of fourteen. His father was a barber and surgeon. His parents died when Murillo was still very young, and the artist was largely brought up by his aunt and uncle. Murillo began his art studies under Juan del Castillo in Seville. There he became familiar with Flemish painting and the "Treatise on Sacred Images" of Molanus (Ian van der Meulen or Molano). The great commercial importance of Seville at the time ensured that he was subject to influences from other regions. His first works were influenced by Zurbarán, Jusepe de Ribera and Alonzo Cano, and he shared their strongly realist approach. As his painting developed, his more important works evolved towards the polished style that suited the bourgeois and aristocratic tastes of the time, demonstrated especially in his Roman Catholic religious works. In 1642, at the age of 26, he moved to Madrid, where he most likely became familiar with the work of Velázquez, and would have seen the work of Venetian and Flemish masters in the royal collections; the rich colors and softly modeled forms of his subsequent work suggest these influences. In 1645 he returned to Seville and married Beatriz Cabrera y Villalobos, with whom he eventually had eleven children. In that year, he painted eleven canvases for the convent of St. Francisco el Grande in Seville. These works depicting the miracles of Franciscan saints vary between the Zurbaránesque tenebrism of the Ecstasy of St Francis and a softly luminous style (as in Death of St Clare...

A very fine and large 18th century oil on canvas titled "Mother and Child" (Probably members of The Swedish Royal Family). Attributed to Michael Dahl (Swe...