18th Century Parrot with Cherubs and Flowers Painting Oil on Canvas by Reneman

Venetian school, 18th century Study with the head of a cherub Measures: Oil on canvas, 45.5 x 41 cm - with frame 54.5 x 49.5 cm The present qualifies as a study or preparatory sketch by virtue of the structural and figural layout; by reason of formal and substantial evidence, it can be traced back to the mature neo-Venetian style, which in the eighteenth century had begun to produce figurations of extreme typological pathetism and formal expressionism. The contemporary painting experience of Tiepolo commanded the Venetian art scene, once the lesson of Pier Francesco Mola (1612-1666) was overruled. The delicate putto head offered here, in which a cherub is recognizable due to the happy iconographic solution of the wings placed under the angel's face, is outlined with a vigorous vitalism. A foreshortened point of view illuminates his face in a grazing way, probing his features with strong shadows and with a youthful blush that orange his cheeks. The veristic perfection with which the artist arranges the semblant is of marvelous expressiveness. The eyes are swollen with intensity, and together with the general setting of the head they denounce a conscious reflection on the physiognomy, peculiar within the emerging context of Venetian painting. The painting in question is affected by the large-scale productions, both monumental and perspective, at the time in vogue in the territory of the Serenissima. Conceived through a vision from below, the portrait reveals from the Venetian Rococo that particular predilection for the open and clear, airy ways, denounced in the first instance by Tiepolo. The conscious detachment from the Cortona-style decorativism and from the repeated layout solutions then in vogue allow us to approach the present to the production of Francesco Fontebasso...

XVIII century St. Francis receives the stigmata Oil on canvas, 97 x 75.5 cm.

A very large, impressive, and beautifully painted Baroque era still life with a colorful parrot and flowers. Oil on canvas in giltwood frame. Italy, late 17th century-early 18th cent...

Antonio Calza (Italy, Verona, 1653-18th April 1725) "Battle between Christian and Turkish cavalry with castle" The painting depicts a bloody battle between Christian and Turkish cavalry. Characterized by dynamism, intensity of color and light, the main scene occupies the lower horizontal section of the canvas, optically interrupted by the black fumes of the shots from which emerge, on the left, the towers of a fortress. On the right, in the distance you can see the combat in progress in the countryside, beyond which you can see the pale presence of hills that create a fifth, marking the horizon. To frame the scene contributes to the left, against light and in the foreground, a portion of the wall. The painter, however, introduces a horse on the ground, of which we see only the back, a ruse to involve the observer making him become active and participate in the scene. In the foreground, lifeless bodies, wounded horses and, scattered on the ground, weapons and a drum enhance the drama of the clash. The excitement and expressive force, the intense chromatic range attentive to the conditions of light and the fine brushstrokes, decisive and dramatic, suggests the attribution to Antonio Calza, one of the most important painters of battles of the seventeenth century, excellent student and continuator of the greatest interpreter of the genre, Jacques Courtois called il Borgognone (Saint-Hyppolite 1621 - Rome 1676). Il Borgognone, although not having had a real school or direct students, places itself as a primary reference point by the Italian and foreign "battaglisti". The genre of battle painting found great success in the collections of the Italian and European nobility of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The battles of the Italian Renaissance, in which the scene converged towards a precise protagonist, evolve towards a type of combat "without hero". The bloody realism of the details and the dynamic development of the narrative confuse the figure of the protagonist, when present, to give importance to the swirl of horses and armed fighters, among which, moreover, does not emerge a winner. The certain documents relating to the life and movements of Antonio Calza are scarce; it was equally difficult to reconstruct, from the critics, a catalogue of autograph works. Through paintings in private collections, in museums and paintings passed on the antiques market it has been possible to identify a copious corpus of works that can be traced back to his hand. The work of art historians, together with that of antique dealers, in conferring proper attributions in order to best outline the figure of Calza, continues but studies are still in progress. In this sense, the work of Giancarlo Sestieri should certainly be noted, who investigated the artistic production of the battaglisti and Calza, thus allowing the comparison of the numerous photographic works reported, to identify and recognize the stylistic qualities that distinguish the corpus of paintings assigned to him today. Antonio Calza was born in 1653 in Italy, in Verona and in 1664 he entered the school of Carlo Cignani in Bologna, dedicating himself to painting battles and landscapes. He then perfected in Rome, where he knew the works of the then undisputed head of the sector, Jacques Courtois called the Burgundian. In 1675 he returned to Verona and married an 88-year-old widow who, dying, left him a rich inheritance. Much appreciated by the nobility and the bourgeoisie, he received numerous commissions. Bartolomeo Dal Pozzo (Le Vite de' pittori, de gli scultori et architetti veronesi, 1718) praises "three great paintings of battles...