Baroque Paintings

17th century Italian oil painting of Mary surrounded by cherub angels framed with a 17th century Italian pediment and fluorite, pyrite, chalcedony, jasper, and barite natural specime...

G. Jouve (18th century) École Nord, France Oil on wooden panel. A dramatic interior composition depicting a rustic surgical procedure taking place in a dimly lit room. A seated man,...

This is a delightful antique Spanish oil on canvas painting after Bartolome' Esteban Murillo, depicting two peasant boys eating grapes and melon, Circa 1780 in date.  It features a ...

Mary Magdalene the Penitent oil painting on canvas, of Italian, Lombard origin, dates from the 17th century and is unframed, has been lined and restored to a new frame; this ancient...

An original portrait painting inspired by a masterpiece” Signed by the artist J. Lorraine, this original portrait is inspired by Sir Anthony van Dyck's celebrated Portrait of Marches...

Fine Pair of 18th Century French Religious Devotional Oils This exquisite pair of oil on canvas paintings explores the central themes of divine intercession and monastic devotion. T...

C. Maratta went to Rome in 1636 and became an apprentice in the Studio of Andrea Sacchi. Pope Alexander VII commissioned many paintings from him. Maratta’s paintings of the later 165...

Italian 17th century still life painting in period carved gilt frame Italian school still life painting from the workshop of a great master. The 17th century Baroque painting in oil...

A fine and large 19th century oil on canvas after Bartolomé Esteban Murrillo's (Spanish, 1617-1682) Masterpiece "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 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...

A circa 1725 oil on canvas portrait of Louis George Simpert, as Hereditary Prince, the future Margrave of Baden-Baden (Deutsch: Ludwig Georg Simpert, Markgraf von Baden-Baden) portrayed one-quarter length in powdered wig and wearing ceremonial armor and crimson sash newly fitted in a period molded giltwood frame with bead-and-reel inner border from the Eli Wilner collection. Canvas measures 24.5" x 19.25". A related, but later portrait of circa 1735, attributed to the same unknown painter, is held in the collection of Lichtenthal Abbey, Baden-Baden. Biography: Louis George or Ludwig Georg Simpert, Margrave of Baden-Baden, born June 7, 1702 at Ettlingen Palace was the son of Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden and his wife, Princess Sibylle of Saxe-Lauenburg. Hereditary Prince of Baden-Baden from birth, at the death of his father in 1707, he succeeded as Margrave of Baden-Baden at the age of four. As such, his mother was regent of Baden-Baden until he reached his majority on 22 October 1727 at the age of 25. He married Maria Anna of Schwarzenberg April 8, 1721 at Český Krumlov Castle. The couple were the parents of four children, of whom only one survived infancy. After the death of the first Maria Anna in 1755, he married the Princess Maria Anna Josepha of Bavaria on July 10, 1755; the daughter of Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor and his Austrian wife Archduchess Maria Amalia. The second marriage remained childless. Due to his passion for hunting instead of military service, he became known as "Jägerlouis", "hunter Louis", a play on his father's nickname of Türkenlouis ("Turk Louis") due to his famous heroics against the Turkish army at the Siege of Vienna...

A anonymous 17th-century Continental School oil on canvas depicting Saint Jerome in penitence. The saint is portrayed kneeling in prayer before a crucifix, dressed in the traditional...

This antique Baroque period oil on canvas painting, is an authentic 1600s Italian School Allegory of Winter featuring putti and cherubs in a rich still life, and housed in its original golden frame, is a rare masterpiece preserved in prima tela (original first canvas). Sourced directly from an exclusive, historic private villa in Tuscany, this exceptional piece has been meticulously preserved by the same noble family for generations. Emerging on the art market for the very first time, this late 17th-century canvas represents a premier acquisition from The Tuscan Villa Collection, offering absolute authenticity and prestigious provenance. Design, Details & Attribution The composition is a sophisticated allegorical study executed with the dramatic chiaroscuro and emotional depth characteristic of the late Italian 1600s. Four masterfully proportioned putti (cherubs) gather around a small fire, their flesh tones illuminated by a theatrical play of light against a deep, crepuscular Italianate landscape. To the right, a monumental Baroque urn overflowing with a finely detailed floral still life anchors the scene, symbolizing the cycles of nature. The dense brushwork, rich earthy palette, and expressive anatomical rendering point directly to a highly skilled hand active in the Italian Baroque School circa 1680-1710. Stylistically, the artwork shares strong affinities with the classicizing Baroque circle of Carlo Cignani and central Italian genre painters of the era. The canvas remains housed in its spectacular coeval original frame, which retains its genuine gold leaf gilding and a magnificent, deep, age-earned patina. Styling & Placement With its grand visual presence and historical importance, this authentic 17th-century canvas serves as an elite statement piece for high-end interiors. The Classical Anchor: Perfectly suited above an early 18th-century walnut console table or credenza in a formal dining room, entryway, or library, where the golden frame and warm tones create an immediate focal point. The Curated Contrast: Highly effective when placed in a minimalist, contemporary space. The juxtaposition of a genuine Baroque masterpiece against clean, modern architecture offers profound historical depth. Collection Harmony: This painting communicates beautifully with fine period furniture, particularly Biedermeier walnut pieces or Italian marquetry chests...

Beautiful large canvas landscape featuring peacock, owl, hawk, and a variety of birds landscape. Vivid colors. Signed L. Cassidy. Wonderfully framed. Curbside to NYC/Philly $450

Early 18th century Italian Venetian inland painting, a large size oil on canvas Baroque mountain landscape with stream, bridge, waterfall, wayfarers and a village in the background. The woodland is animated by figures, a caravan with horsemen fishermen. This monumental Italian Baroque landscape painting has a strong impact and an excellent composition balance, as it depicts in the center the luminous perspective of a fortified village, whose side wings consist of two mountain rocks with dark wooded vegetation crowded by characters, horsemen, paths, streams.On the left side, with respect to the observer, there is a path that runs alongside a stream that flows into a waterfall in the center of the composition. from a caravan of travelers on foot and on horseback traveling along it in both directions: going up the slope on the mountainous coast you can see a church and a village near the top. The right part of the painting depicts a more sparse and dry vegetation, painted in the chromatic tones of ocher, inside of which there are dead plant, dry branches and a smaller number of figures on the rugged mountain. The iconographic inspiration of this wooded representation seems to be in the large trunk of the withered conifer in a central position, which represents a dead tree, as a? reminder of the transience of everything in life, whose phases are summarized in the two mountainous coasts. In the background a village painted in light and soft blue colors, in stark contrast to the previous scene, seems  to reassure and project us into a future season. With a suggestive theatrical effect, more than 250 cm wide, this Baroque Italian painting comes from a private collection of Milan, the canvas has been lined and shows minor painting retouches at a horizontal seam of the canvas. It is unframed, it has just a wooden profile covering the canvas edge. It is an antique Italian landscape, the perfect opportunity to make a statement. Get the perfect size painting for a great living room, to create that eye-catching focal point. You can make an impact with a single large work by hanging this early 18th century Italian Baroque painting...

Italian Oil Painting on Canvas in a Giltwood Florentine Frame 18th Century This finely painted Italian oil on canvas, presented behind glass, dates from the 18th century and is belie...

17th Century Large Old Master Battle Scene Painting. Flemish School, circa 1610 - 1680. Oil on canvas painting depicts a dynamic battle scene fi...

Peruvian Cuzco School Oil on Canvas of the Archangel Michael defeating Satan 18th Century. Later Frame. Wear commensurate with age. The Cuzco or Cusco school was a Roman Catho...

This 18th-century Baroque painting presents a tender depiction of The Holy Family with an Angel. Rendered in oil on copper panel, a common technique of that period for its durability...

1600s Guercino Follower Italian Religious Painting Beautiful oil painting on canvas depicting the Penitent Magdalene. This important painting is unique in that it shows Magdalene wit...

18th Century Dutch harbour scene / seascape painting with ships in stormy waters by Jan Verbruggen (1712-1780). Signed 'J.Verbruggen'. Jan Verbruggen and his son Peter were artists,...

This large Italian Baroque oil on canvas, dating from the late 17th century represents an exceptionally vivid battle scene with the unusual subject of a brigand ambush on a stagecoac...

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

This is a vivid and finely executed reverse glass painting depicting the biblical scene of Joseph being sold by his brothers to passing merchants (Genesis 37). This subject was frequ...

This antique devotional oil painting was created in France circa 1680 and depicts the Madonna seated with the Christ Child across her lap, accompanied by a young angel in prayer. The...

17th century Italian old master painting Madonna and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist. Important Tuscan School Old Master painting in oil on a hand shaved wood panel. ...

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 finely painted early 19th century Russian Orthodox icon, Saint Nicholas of Myra, circa 1820. This traditional Russian icon is finely painted with egg tempera paint and gesso on a l...

Alberto Carlieri (Rome 1672-1720) "Architectural capriccio with the preaching of Saint Paul in the Areopagus of Athens" Oil on canvas, measures with...

Dipinto Fiammingo del 1600 a olio su rame raffigurante uno scorcio di paesaggio con figure, una scena di genere con una moltitudine di personaggi affollati in una strada con delle ar...

A large antiqued reproduction oil painting after Antoine Watteau. Features an antiqued canvas. Frame: 75.5 cm (29.72 inches) x 66.5 cm (26.18 inches) Canvas: 55.5 cm (21.85 inches) ...

Oil painting of a rococo scene 19th century F. Heinz. Oil on mahogany plate. Scene of a rococo group of people. Return with Inventory number. Unrestored historical condition. Gold f...

FRENCH SCHOOL "Portrait of a Girl with Flowers". Oil on canvas from the 18th century. Relined. Dimensions: 80 x 64 cm Good condition

Pier Francesco Cittadini (Milan, 1616-Bologna, 1681) "Jacob and his family go to Egypt" Oil on canvas, cm 109 x 190 (canvas only) The valuable painting, made in oil on canvas, depicts Jacob and his family go to Egypt and we believe it can be, given the high quality painting, autograph work of Italian Pier Francesco Cittadini (Italy Milan, 1616 - Bologna, 1681) made after 1647. The work, in excellent condition is accompanied by a coeval frame in wood finely carved and golden. The scene depicted, which was confused with the Flight to Egypt in the past years, is instead identified with the biblical episode of Jacob’s journey. In the foreground, reading the painting from left to right, we see a caravan composed of animals, including donkeys, dromedaries, goats, dogs and horses and people, women, men and slaves, who carry on their journey along the banks of a river, following a path that to the right, would seem to lead to the through of a bridge. In addition to the watercourse is described an environment characterized by large rocks and impervious come far to cover the entire verticality of the canvas. On the left, in the distance, we see the tail of the caravan that runs along the steep path. Large trees enliven and harmonize the environment, as well as white and grey clouds characterize the predominantly clear sky and illuminated on the right by sunlight. The story is told in the Bible, Book of Genesis, 30, 25, passage in which is described the flight of Jacob from Haran after the contrasts with Laban, father of his wife Rachel. Jacob is the third great patriarch of the Bible. From his descendants originate the twelve generations of the people of Israel. He is the son of Isaac and Rebekah, who led him to flee from the wrath of Esau to Haran to seek refuge from his brother, Laban. At his uncle’s house Jacob met his daughter Rachel. As soon as he saw his cousin, Jacob was taken. Jacob will stay seven years in the service of Laban to marry his beloved Rachel. But Laban, with a deception, will give him in marriage first Lia, the least beautiful eldest daughter, and only after another seven years the splendid Rachel. From his first wife he will have several children, while Rachel will give birth to the beloved son, Joseph, who will become viceroy of Egypt. After years of service, Jacob asked to be paid with every dark-coloured garment among the sheep and every spotted and dotted garment among the goats. Laban accepted and sent away from his sons all the leaders of that kind. So Jacob took fresh branches of poplar, almond and plane tree, and flayed them, and put them in the troughs. The optical suggestion induced the goats and the sheep to conceive and give birth to dark, striped and dotted garments. He also ensured that all the strongest and healthiest leaders of the flock of Laban would drink near the barked branches, thus assuring a genetic superiority to his part of the flock. His flocks grew numerous and strong and he became richer than his relative, arousing envy. It was clear that Laban would not respect him much longer. At the suggestion of the Lord, Jacob decided to return to Canaan. Trying to avoid any possible dispute, he left with his family while Laban was absent for shearing sheep. But when, three days later, his uncle returned home, he became angry, feeling offended because Jacob had gone secretly and had not allowed him to greet his daughters and grandchildren. In addition, his teraphim, statuettes, or idols, which depicted the family deities, had disappeared. After 7 days of pursuit, Laban and his men reached Jacob’s group on Mount Gilead, in the mountainous region west of the Euphrates River, where his uncle and grandson had a stormy conversation. The younger man was outraged at being accused of stealing idols and told Labano to rummage through his family’s tents at will. Neither of them could know or even imagine that it was Rachel who took the idols and hid them in the saddle of the camel. During the search, she sat down firmly on the saddle, apologizing for not being able to get up, «because I usually have what happens to women» (Gen 31:35). So the loot wasn’t discovered. The author of this work was inspired by the composition of an engraving by Stefano Della Bella (1610-1664) of circa 1647. The engraving by Stefano della Bella bears the title "Iacob sur ses vieux jours quitte sans fascherie pour voir son filz Ioseph, sa terre et sa patrie" and is signed on the bottom left "Stef. of the Beautiful In. et fe." while on the right it is declared "Cum privil. Regis", that is with license of the king. Stefano Della Bella (Italy - Florence, May 18, 1610-Florence, July 12, 1664) was born in a family of painters, sculptors and goldsmiths and was left early orphan of his father sculptor, he dedicated himself first to the art of goldsmith at the school of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione and Gasparo Mola, then turning his attention to drawing and engraving. He soon began drawing figures and copying the etchings of Jacques Callot, which inspired his early works. Under the protection of the Medici, in particular of Don Lorenzo, cadet son of Grand Duke Ferdinand I, Della Bella has the opportunity to make study trips to Rome, where he stayed from 1633-1636; In Rome he met French engravers and publishers of prints such as Israël Henriet and François Langlois, who influenced his decision to move to Paris in 1639, four years after the death of Callot. In Paris he soon reached, thanks to the engravings commissioned by Cardinal Richelieu, the success also worldly; he frequented courtiers, theatre artists and writers, while refusing too oppressive honors. In 1646-1647 he continued his travels in the Netherlands to Amsterdam, Antwerp and Dordrecht. He returned to Florence in 1650 and resumed working under the protection of the Medici court, working for his patrons. In 1656 he became a member of the Academy of Apatists. The painting object of this study is reasonably attributable to Pier Francesco Cittadini, or Pierfrancesco Cittadini, called the Milanese or the Franceschino (Italy - Milan, 1616-Bologna, 1681) as some exemplary stylistic comparisons proposed to follow can prove. Pier Francesco Cittadini was an Italian baroque painter, mainly active in Bologna. His artistic training first took place with the painter Daniele Crespi...

Portraits of the monarchs Louis XIII and Anne-Marie of Austria as hunters. Oil on canvas. Possibly Madrid school, 17th century. Pair of full-length portraits showing the characters against natural backgrounds, with landscapes with mountains in the distance and trees. The male character, who looks directly at the viewer, has dark hair and a fine moustache, and is dressed in a ruff, a doublet, leather gloves, a blued breastplate with gold details, breeches, white silk stockings and cavalier boots. The lady, who modestly lowers her gaze, has her head partially covered with a hat decorated with a brooch and white feathers; she is dressed in a ruff and a dress with a wide-skirted doublet and skirt, wide-mouthed gloves and a short cloak with a decorated edge gathered around the left arm and placed over the right side of the skirt. Alongside these “hunting” dresses, they appear carrying firearms and accompanied by large dogs. The king's dog is standing alertly, turning his head to one side. The queen's dog is sitting looking at her, with a collar and a rope that she holds in her left hand. The male subject is clearly the French King Louis XIII (Fontainebleau, 1601-Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 1643), monarch of France and Navarre (1610-1643), son of Henry IV of France and Marie de Médicis and father of Louis XIV of France. Compare with other portraits: by Rubens, painted around 1622-1625 at the Norton Simon Museum (Pasadena, California, USA); by Philippe de Champaigne, painted in 1635 and kept at the Museo del Prado (Madrid, Spain); the painting by Frans Pourbus the Younger from the 1920s at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Chambéry (France); etc. Louis XIII married Anne of Austria, daughter of Philip III of Spain, in 1615. This was brought about by the marriage agreement of Fountainebleau (1611), which stipulated the future wedding of the Prince of Asturias, Philip IV, with the French princess Isabella of Bourbon, and that of the French monarch with Anne. Anne Maria Mauricia of Austria and Austria-Styria (Valladolid, 1601-Paris, 1666) was an Infanta of Spain and Portugal as the daughter of Philip III of Spain and Margaret of...

Goya oil on canvas from xviii century The canvas is relined. It is from the same time that Goya made the cartons. The painting measures: 135 x 101 cm without frame. The dutch frame measures: 172 x 140 cm -The blind chicken (1789) is one of the cartoons that served as a model for the manufactures of the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Bárbara by Francisco de Goya...

An intimate and beautifully composed devotional scene painted in the circle of the great Flemish Baroque master Peter Paul Rubens, depicting The Holy Family with Saint Anne. The comp...

Coriolan's mother and wife beg him to spare Rome , Oil On Canvas . German School Circa 1750 This painting represents the story of Coriolan, Roman general and leader of the Patrici...

Circle of VAN DE KASTEELE, Frans (Brussels, c. 1541 – Italy, 1621). "Virgin with angels and saints". Oil on copper. Curly frame in ebony. Devotiona...

A Large and Impressive Early 20th Century Oil on Canvas "Madonna and Child" After Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (Spanish, 1618-1682) depicting a seated Virgin Mary with a baby Jesus Chri...

Jan van Kessel I and Jan van Balen, Still life with flowers, butterfly, trompe l'oeil frame and sacred scene, first half of the 17th century Signed I. V. Balen Oil on panel. Size: 68...

An imposing religious-themed painting depicts the scene of the "Assumption of the Virgin". The iconography in this 19th-century painting follows the tendencies of Baroqueization and ...

Flemish 17th Century Genre Painting Circle of David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690). This cabinet painting depicting a woman shelling peas is from the Flemish School of the 17th ...

Julius Caesar Ibbetson 1759-1817 old master painting English, 18th century This English school painting by Julius Caesar Ibbetson (1759-1817) depicts a countryside farm house off of a road with a horse drawn wagon...

This is a monumental and spectacular 18th century, or possibly early 19th, oil on canvas of the Italian school. The canvas depicts a shepherd serenading a maiden in a wooded glen. B...

 This captivating 17th century Venetian painting depicts the biblical scene of Christ and the Pilgrims at Emmaus, rendered with the ric...

Bernhard Keil was among the most distinctive genre painters active in Italy during the second half of the seventeenth century. Born in Helsingør, Denmark, he apprenticed under the Co...

Antonio Zanchi (Este, 6 December 1631 – Venice, 12 April 1722) St. Jerome Penitent Dimensions: canvas W 73 × H 92 cm; frame W 96 × H 115 × D 6 cm The painting depicts St. Jerome as ...

Exceptional large scale portrait painting newly identified as that of Karel van Lynden, Lord of Swanenburg (c. 1707 - 1742) portrayed bewigged and in crimson mantle-enwrapped armor a...

Belgium / 18th century / Painting / wood / Antique / Religious A 18th century painting on wood after a Rubens painting “Adoration of the Magi”. Elegantly encased in a stunning blac...

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...

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Francesco Aviani (Italy - Venice, 25-11-1662 / 1715) att. Couple of paintings depicting Capricci Oil on canvas, 135 x 183 cm, without frame The two large and fine paintings depict two illusionistic architectural renderings, with views of colonnades and arched buildings, animated by figures. The compositions are characterized by the harmony with which the painter introduces the sumptuous architectural monuments, the mirrors of water, the buildings in the distance and the views of the landscape. Dominates with a color on the tones of brown and ochre that stands out on the blue sky, marked by some cloud of steam. The insertion of the figures to enliven the architectural views also balances with the set. The Capriccio, an artistic genre that has made its way into Italian painting since the 17th Century, is characterized by the representation of fantastic architectures or prospective inventions, sometimes combined with elements drawn freely from reality. The two paintings are an example of this type and they are a very interesting and Fine artwork. The remarkable pictorial quality emerges both from the composition of the ensemble and from the way in which the artist describes the views with great attention to detail, highlights and refined, perfectly realistic, chiaroscuro. The same must be recognized for the figures: these are described with a wise brushstroke, quick and quick touches give the dynamism of the moment that is captured, as if time had stopped to show and narrate what is happening. The painting on the right represents a large Baroque building in stone and paved with marbles, two floors, with moving façade, large columns with corinthian columns, a large portal with a staircase with large footsteps, a balustrade with string, from which some figures appear, and two equestrian monuments in bronze. The sumptuous building overlooks a large POOL of water, with a gushing fountain, around which some characters sit. In the second floor is described a white palace from which rises a tower crowned by a structure with wrought iron loggia. In addition there is a bridge and some architectural ruins behind which some mountainous reliefs fade towards the horizon. On the staircase is described a particular scene. The people seem to be part of a very precise story. A woman, in the shadow of a parasol supported by a servant, would seem to drive out of the palace a man, who, taken under his arm by two maidens with a determined attitude, is led to a boat. The scene could be identified with the biblical episode of the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15,11-32), at the moment when the prodigal son is robbed and driven away by the harlots. The episode tells of a man with two children. The youngest said to his father: “Father, give me the part of my inheritance”. And the father divided the substances. After not many days, the youngest son, collected his things, left for a far country and there he lost his substances with prostitutes and living as a debaucher. When he had spent everything, there came a great famine in that country and he began to find himself in need. Reduced to hunger, he was forced to be a pig herder to survive. He therefore meditated in his heart to go to his father and ask for his forgiveness and to be welcomed anew, even as a servant. While still on the road, however, the father saw him and ran towards him, receiving him with open arms. He then ordered his servants to prepare a great feast for the occasion, killing for the purpose the "fatty calf". The firstborn did not understand why his brother was given such treatment, and reminded the parent that he, who had always obeyed him, had never received a single kid to celebrate with his friends. The father answered him: «Son, you are always with me and everything that is mine is yours; but it was necessary to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and came back to life, was lost and was found». The parable of the prodigal son was often portrayed in painting and the scene he finds most is certainly that of returning home in his father’s arms. Among the many is a canvas by the famous painter Giovanni Paolo Pannini (or Panini) (Italy – Piacenza, 1691– Rome, 1765) kept at the Hallsborough Gallery in London. Rather rare, however, is the scene of the prodigal son driven and robbed by harlots. There is an engraving by Hans Collaert II (1561-1620) in which this moment is described in the background compared to the moment, narratively later, in which he is penitent among the pigs. The second painting, certainly pendant of the first, represents a similar palace, with some characters overlooking the balustrade marcapiano and other figures around the large bathtub quadrilobata. In the foreground is described a monument with two large stone sculptures. In the distance some architectural elements and, beyond, the mountains are lost on the horizon. The studies related to the numerous painters of architectural views and caprices, active in Italy, and the archival documents found, which could better clarify commissions, biographies and certain works, are scarce and sporadic. Therefore there are still many difficulties in reconstructing a catalogue of autograph works for each author. Through paintings in private collections, in museums and paintings passed on the antique market it is however possible to advance some attributions in order to better delineate the various artistic figures. The style of the works studied here leads to a dating that runs between the 17th and 18th Centuries, with obvious influences dictated by the perspectives of the brothers Galli Bibiena. The analysis of the architectures and the chromatic palette suggests that we are in the presence of a northern Italian and Venetian author. Observing the decorations and the volutes, the brightness and the perspective disposition in fact, we find several analogies with those used by the Vicenza painter Francesco Aviani, excellent in pictorial perspective and architectural views. The biographical profile of Francesco Aviani (Italy - Vicenza, 1662-1715) was essentially traced in 1956 by Andreina Ballarin, then re-visited by Federica Spadotto in 2014 and Giancarlo Sestieri in 2015. Certain documents about his life are scarce, as are the documented works. He was born in Venice, probably on 25 November 1662, to Bernardo and a Magdalene whose surname is unknown, and was baptized on 3 December 1662. Between 1701 and 1703 he worked, together with his brother MarCo, sculptor, for the fresco decoration (now illegible) of the church villa in Soella (Vicenza). On October 16, 1703 he married Isabella Carcano. On March 26, 1715 he made a will and died on April 3 of the same year, in Vicenza. The frescoes in the refectory of the sanctuary of Monte Berico in Vicenza are considered authentic works by Aviani, probably made in 1708; the paintings preserved in the Civic Museum of Vicenza: “Landscape with Lazzaro and the rich Epulone”; “Christ among the doctors”; “The miraculous fishing”, works not datable but with attribution corroborated by style. In addition, the frescoes in the east and west corridors of the Villa La Rotonda, near Vicenza; the fresco in the apse basin of the chapel of the church S. Croce, Vicenza, now destroyed; the frescoes of the central hall of Villa Camerini a Montruglio (1714) and a painting of a “Porto Regio”, of which we have a print engraved by Dall'Acqua. From his works emerges the artistic background that animated the Venetian culture in the early eighteenth century. The scenic grandeur with which Aviani treats the architecture also suggests a stay in Emilia of the painter, in which he could have come into contact with the environment of the Bibiena. These contacts would be confirmed by the press of Cristoforo Dall'Acqua (Vicenza 1734-1787), “Il porto regio”, after a painting of Aviani. The press was part of a group of engravings, representing royal buildings, reproducing paintings of the Bibiena. In the eyes of Dall’Acqua, therefore, Aviani’s work was not foreign among those of the Emilians. Inside the sumptuous architectural whims, Aviani often depicts biblical scenes, in which the characters share the space and the narrative rhythm, along with figures drawn from everyday scenes, memories of the Veronese and Bassano heritage. Also in the works covered by this study the author does not seem to want to give up a biblical subject, though the purpose of the paintings appears to be clearly a staging scenography-architectural within which the characters are relegated to the role of extras. From the examination of the architectural Capriccio gathered under the name of Aviani then emerge common elements. The comparison between these works and the works in question highlights the proximity of the compositions. The imposing and scenic architectures are in fact equally characterized by the perspective-scenographic ability diffused in emilian “quadraturisti” and in Bibiena work. In fact, you can see the spectacular slender architecture in the lower part, the loggias that create chiaroscuro games with arches and binate columns placed on massive bases and overhung by projecting cornices. Significant also the comparison with two paintings with architectural whims in a night vision attributed to Francesco Aviani. In Aviani’s works it is possible to find a certain knowledge of the Roman Codazzi paint nd its early development of the eighteenth century, developed with the Locatelli, the Pannini and the less known Domenico Roberti. To Roberti have been recently attributed two works that have some compositional affinity with the canvases in question. The same can be done for a work on the antique market, attributed to Pietro Francesco...

This 18th century Italian painting captures one of the most iconic biblical moments: the Adoration of the Magi. The mysterious travelers kneel in reverence before the Infant Jesus, ...

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