Rare miniature painting by the legendary jeweler Fulco di Verdura

A ram lowers its horns in a face off with a barking dog that rises on its haunches. An ox turns its head to watch the row. An annoyed ewe glances over its shoulder, but the two behin...

This Mughal miniature was painted at one of the princely courts of India. It depicts a raven-haired princess in a gold-trimmed saffron-colored silk sari. Under a glowering evening sky she dawdles on a white marble terrace, with a pet fawn on a leash, before a landscape dotted with buildings nestled amongst trees beyond a river. Her hair, falling loosely about her shoulders, rather than carefully dressed on her head, indicates that she is a maiden. The overall mood is one of expectancy. Perhaps walking a pet and catching an evening breeze is a pretext to escape palace scrutiny for a lovers’ assignation. In Mughal India tender sentiments were a bridge to the erotic – and if this seems contradictory, so too is the balance of realism and caricature, and naturalism with the schematic. Both are hallmarks of miniatures painted in this place and time. The earliest Mughal Indian miniatures date to the 16th century. They were inspired by those painted at the refined Moslem courts of the neighboring Persian empire. They incorporated figures in spite of the Moslem faith’s proscription against depicting the human form. Such was the nature of sophisticated courtly life everywhere that beauty and pleasure trumped systems of morality. This was no less the case at the provincial Indian courts, where our miniature, marked by a charming pictorial naiveté, was most likely painted. Yet the artist was undeniably accomplished. His command of perspective, introduced by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th century, is seen in the landscape, which rolls back to a distant horizon, contrary to the flat two-dimensional ones following Indian-painting traditions. And if Mughal artists were influenced by Western art, the compliment was returned by Rembrandt and Sir Joshua Reynolds, among others, who collected Indian miniatures (as did, perhaps, Giovanni Bellini who painted in Mughal style the famous miniature of a Persian man...

Great grandson of the famous writer Victor Hugo, the painter Jean Hugo (1894-1984) was in the thick of the Paris art scene between the wars. A member of the avant garde, he was a friend of Picasso, Cocteau and Colette and was associated with the Neo Romantics. His small gouaches on paper were avidly collected by Dr. Albert Barnes, and can be seen today in the Barnes Collection in Philadelphia. Hugo's most desirable work -- landscapes, interior scenes, set designs -- date from the mid 1920s to the late 1930s. This whimsical painting, signed and dated 1927, is set in a curtained, classical interior furnished with Victorian lighting fixtures...

This neoclassical trompe l'oeil painting is an allegory of summer. It would have been hung with allegories of the other three seasons over the doors of a salon. Ceres, Roman goddess...

In 19th-century Venice, glassmaking studios were pokey little family affairs. The craft was passed on from father to son, and conducted in a studio, with an assistant or two, and per...

This cylinder box is an exceptionally fine example of straw marquetry, and a rare survivor of the craft, which involves the cutting, coloring, and mounting of split straws to form de...

The three kings miniature painting. Antique Louis XV period painting of the three wise men who paid homage to the King. The three kings on card paper i...

Luciano Di Concetto early work with no title. One of the most important contemporary French painters is Luciano Di Concetto whose stylized work is becoming famous worldwide. His wor...

Miniature continental landscape, oil on panel, depicting house and shored boat, initialled ''W'' lower right.

Miniature Continental landscape, oil on panel, depicting house and shored boat, initialed ''W'' lower right.

This exquisite antique French School miniature painting on porcelain is a true gem of artistry and craftsmanship. Created by a skilled artist of the French School, this delicate work...

Miniature Portrait Painting of Napoleon signed by Prévost from the nineteenth century. The frame is in solid mahogany and is dished and...