18th Century Cherub Head Sketch Painting Oil on Canvas

Emilian school, 17th century Putto with rose Oil on canvas, 43.5 x 32 cm - with frame 45 x 32.5 cm The figure of the putto, when equipped with specific attributes, lends it...

17th century, Tuscan school Madonna and Child Oil on canvas, 31 x 21 cm With frame, cm 37,5 x 27,5 The pearly incarnations and the thoughtful play of looks between the Virgin, turned to the Son, and Questi, warmly open to the viewer, pour out the present painting with compositional perfection. Virginal fabrics become mottled at the folds, wrapping the Madonna in a thin vitreous mantle. The pastel colors, shining on the pink robe just tightened at the waist by a gold cord, enliven the faces of the divine couple in correspondence of the cheeks, lit by an orange warmth. Even the left hand of the Virgin, composed in perfect classical pose (Botticelli, Madonna with Child, 1467, Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon), is sprinkled with warmth thanks to the immediate touch with Christ. From the nimbus of the Mother a delicate luminous disk is effused, which takes back, in the most distant rays, the colour of the hair of the Son, from the tones of the sun. The Child Jesus is represented intent in a tender gesture of invitation with the right hand, while with the other he offers a universal blessing: with his hand he retracts the index and annular palms, extending the remaining three fingers, symbol of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The painting welcomes and re-elaborates that typically Tuscan formalism that boasted in the rest of Italy the constant appreciation by the most up-to-date artists and collectors. Arrangement, composition and mixing of colors place the canvas in the middle between the changing mannerist and the sculptural figures of Michelangelo, essential yardstick of comparison in terms of anatomical and expressionistic rendering. In the present, silvery and pinkish powders act as three-dimensional inducers to the Child’s mentioned musculature and to the vivid folds of the clothes, expertly deposited on the lunar whiteness of the skins. While these colours recall the equally brilliantly transparent colours of Pier Francesco Foschi...

This is a charming painting of a cherub with an arm extending forward, perhaps hold out a bouquet of flowers. The painting dates to the mid-18th century and is probably cut from a larger painting. The putti is well-framed in a French a gold leafed neoclassical-style. Considering the quality of this painting, and although not signed, the painting was most probably painted by a recognized Italian 18th century artist.

Painting "Three putti playing with a lion", Italy, late 17th century, oil on canvas, framed Picture size: height 63 cm, width 47.5 cm Frame size: height 78 cm, width 63 cm