Florence - Interior Paintings

Adoration of three wise men, Epiphany. Octagonal painting on copper. 17th century. The painting depicts 3 kings who came from distant countries, dressed in cloaks in precious fabri...

Scene of a knight atop a ship with sword raised. Emmanuel Cocard, Lyon, 1929. Painted in gouache on thick cardboard, currently protected by a wooden panel. The author of the paintin...

Interior of a church. Late 19th - early 20th century. Italian school. Size with frame cm 42,5 x 37 Painting made with great attention to light and at the same time with very realist...

This small painting (oil on canvas 36 x 22.5 cm, with carved and gilded frame 58 x 44 cm) can be ascribe to the "Purismo", an Italian cultural movement which began in the 1820s. The group intended to restore and preserve language through the study of medieval authors, and such study extended to the visual arts. Inspired by the Nazarenes from Germany, the artists of Purismo reject Neoclassicism and emulated the works of Raphael, Giotto and Fra Angelico. The group's ideals were iterated in their manifesto "Del purismo nelle arti", in 1842–43 which was written by Antonio Bianchini and co-signed by Tommaso Minardi (1787–1871), the major proponent of Purismo, Nazarene co-founder Friedrich Overbeck and Pietro Tenerani. The movement flourished through 1860, and reflected the taste for revivalist styles, which in Italy was fed growing interest in Italian national identity and artistic heritage. The subject of the scene is a dominican frian, portrayed while with one hand is holding a red book, with the other he's touching on an holy water font. Behind him there is a column with a bearded saint painted, probably Anthony the Great...

The painting represents an important episode of the life of the roman consul Caius Mario, as reported by the greek biographer Plutarch in 75 AD. Mario was imprisoned at Minturnae in 88 BC by his rival, the roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla, and while he was in jail a Cimbrian soldier was sent to murder him but when, out f the blue, the consul cried out “Who dares kill Marius?” he retreated in panic, throwing the sword on the ground. The scene is set in a dark ambient, with very spare furniture (important detail, the niche on the wall with just a lamp and a pitcher for the water). Marius lays in the shade on a kline-a special bed common in the in the dining rooms of the roman era...