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Tue 18 Jun

PITTORE BOLOGNESE DEL XVI-XVII SECOLO - Portrait of Petrus Gonsalvus (Tenerife, 1537 - Capodimonte, 1618) Oil on copper, cm 20.5X16 Provenance: Private collection The painting is one of the rare portraits of Pedro Gonsalvus, who, a native of Tenerife, was taken prisoner by the Spaniards at the age of ten and while being taken to Charles V, was captured by French privateers and sent to the French court as an extravagant gift for King Henry II and his wife Catherine de Medici. The man, of aristocratic origins as heir to a Guaci royal family, suffered from hypertrichosis, and the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi called him 'the man of the woods'; at the French court he was called 'the wild gentleman of Tenerife.' That said, Gonsalvus received a polite upbringing, so much so that he could afford the appellation 'don,' with the understanding that his prerogative was to impersonate a naturalistic curiosity. Nonetheless, the young man became one of the most cultured personalities in Henry II's entourage, and at the age of thirty-six, at the queen's whim, he was given in marriage to the most beautiful of his ladies-in-waiting, Catherine, with whom he had six children and gave rise to the narrative of 'beauty and the beast.' Between 1580 and 1590 Petrus Gonsalvus traveled with his family to Italy, where he stayed at the court of Margaret of Parma. He later settled in Capodimonte, in the Rocca Farnese on Lake Bolsena in the province of Viterbo, where he died in 1618. Returning to the painting, as we know there are few of those depicting Pedro Gonsalvus, and the known ones are preserved in Ambras Castle near Innsbruck in the so-called 'Room of Art and Curiosities.' Famous, on the other hand, is the portrait of his daughter Antoinette painted by Lavinia Fontana in two redactions who also suffered from hypertrichosis. Reference bibliography: R. Zapperi, El salvaje gentilhombre de Tenerife: la singular historia de Pedro Gonzáles y su familia, Zeck 2006, ad vocem

Estim. 1 000 - 2 000 EUR

Tue 18 Jun

PITTORE ATTIVO A BOLOGNA NEL XVI-XVII SECOLO - Judith and Holofernes Oil on panel, 86.5X69.5 cm Provenance: Rome, private collection The panel shows late 16th-century Emilian characters, affinities with the creations of Lavinia Fontana (Bologna, 1552 ; Rome, 1614), but also a singular Nordic suggestion. Indeed, the metallic tenor of the drafts, the expressive energy and the stubborn attention to describing the jewels and embroidery of the robes, suggest comparison with the creations of Denys Calvaert (Antwerp, c. 1540 ; Bologna, 1619). A valuable parallel is offered by the Judith from the Pinacoteca Stuard in Parma, in which we observe a resembling face with the same gaze, the indisposed shape of the lips and a similar design of hands and gestures (fig. 1). Equally useful is the comparison with the St. Cecilia in the National Gallery in Parma, in which similar sartorial solutions with the use of brooch-like jewelry are subdued. Therefore, the work in spite of a necessary fine-tuning of the surface, reveals a high quality of execution, in turn corroborated by the preciousness of the pigments and the pictorial conduction, marked by skillful glazing passages and iridescent chromatics according to the best Flemish art of Italianizing taste. As we know, Calvaert left Antwerp at a young age to travel to Italy and, upon reaching Bologna, was a pupil of Prospero Fontana and Lorenzo Sabatini, then stayed in Rome from 1570 to 1572 to study the works of Renaissance artists. He returned to Bologna and successfully opened his own workshop, creating works in which the powerful colorism of the Flemish Mannerists is combined with the best Italian tradition.

Estim. 2 000 - 3 000 EUR

Tue 18 Jun

POLIDORO DA LANCIANO - (Lanciano, 1515 - Venice, 1565) Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist Oil on panel, cm 53.5X48.5 Provenance: Florence, private collection There is no record of young Polidoro de Renzi's artistic education; the only certain evidence is from 1536, when his name is recorded in the Fraglia dei Pittori Veneziani. In the lagoon city he certainly frequented the workshop of Titian Vecellio, as attested by his Sacre Conversazioni, but his presence in the atelier of the Cadore painter is not historically confirmed, where his art also appears to have been influenced by Paris Bordon and Bonifacio de Pitati. In the 1540s he fired his only documented work, the altarpiece depicting The Descent of the Holy Spirit, destined for the high altar of the church of the same name on the Zattere (Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia), but other large-format works, where clear tintoretto suggestions are evident, are located in this decade. In 1552 he made the lost gonfalon for the Scuola Grande di San Teodoro, and in 1559 he received the commission for the organ doors of the Church of San Giovanni in Bragora, while his style manifested clear suggestions of Veronese classicism, from which he drew iconographic modules and a renewed chromatic modernity. The panel under consideration can be placed in the youthful period, when Vecellio's influences are preponderant and the production is directed toward creating devotional paintings and Sacred Conversations with a full narrative character, following proven iconographic formulas of great success. Reference bibliography: E. Martini, Pittura veneta e altra italiana dal XV al XIX Secolo, Rimini 1992, pp. 86-87, no. 32 V. Mancini, Polidoro da Lanciano, Lanciano 2001, ad vocem.

Estim. 2 000 - 3 000 EUR

Tue 18 Jun

CARLO ANTONIO PROCACCINI - (Bologna, 1571 - Milan, 1630) Drunkenness of Noah Oil on panel, 63X80 cm Provenance: Vienna, Dorotheum, Nov. 10, 2022, lot 232 (as Carlo Antonio Procaccini) Trained in the workshop of his father Ercole, with whom his brothers Camillo and Giulio Cesare also worked, the painter's presence in Milan is attested in 1590 as Camillo's collaborator on the building site of the Visconti Borromeo Villa in Lainate (Cf. A. Morandotti, Milano profana nell'età dei Borromeo, Milan 2005). If Camillo's early works reflect the workshop style, as can be seen by looking at the 'quadrone' depicting the Death of St. Charles Borromeo preserved in the Milan cathedral (Cf. M. Rosci, I quadroni di San Carlo del Duomo di Milano, Milan 1965) and the Madonna del Rosario di Erve, which constitute the most important testimonies of his public production, the painter soon chose to devote himself to the still life genre (cf. A. Morandotti, Carlo Antonio Procaccini, in La natura morta in Italia, edited by F. Porzio; F. Zeri, I, Milan 1989, p. 233; D. Dotti, Carlantonio Procaccini pittore di nature morte, in Paragone, LXII, 2011, 741, pp. 35-41) and landscape, referring to the examples of Paul Brill and Jan Bruegel. This predilection is also confirmed by his use of realizing his works on panel, apt to best evoke the expressive and chromatic delicacies of the Flemish. This aspect is very well grasped in the work under consideration, whose landscape passages, and especially the description of the trees, highlight the preciousness of his art, conducted with miniature attention and a rarefied evocation of the landscape, the backdrop of which is diluted in a delicate blue hue. But in this case we must highlight a mature and autonomous interpretation of Nordic art in a purely Italian key, which differs from the works in which the author carries out his work by faithfully replicating models, as is the case in the Paesaggio con Santa Margherita (Landscape with St. Margaret) preserved in the Ala Ponzone Museum in Cremona, which reveals itself to be blatantly a copy from Jan Brueghel (Cf. A. Lo Conte, Carlo Antonio and the bottega Procaccini, in Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 2020, pp. 13-14, figs. 5-6). This leads one to assume a mature date of execution, around the second and third decade, documenting the artist's best and most autonomous achievements. Alberto Crispo is thanked for the attribution. Reference bibliography: R. Longhi, An Italian in the wake of Elsheimer, Carlo Antonio Procaccini, in Paragone, XVI, 1965, 185, p. 43 A. Morandotti, in Pittura a Milano dal Seicento al Neoclassicismo, edited by M. Gregori, Cinisello Balsamo 1999, pp. 12-17, 235-244 A. Crispo, Carlo Antonio and the Procaccini legacy, in Paragone, LIV, 2003, 639, pp. 42-50 A. Crispo, Some proposals for Camillo Antonio Procaccini, in Parma per l'arte, XVIII, 2012, 2, pp. 69-72

Estim. 2 000 - 3 000 EUR

Tue 18 Jun

GASPARE DIZIANI - (Belluno, 1689 - Venice, 1767) Moses and the bronze serpent Oil on canvas, 54.5X68.5 cm Provenance: Milan, private collection A renowned painter and engraver, Gaspare Diziani was first a pupil of Gregorio Lazzarini and later of fellow countryman Sebastiano Ricci. His initial notoriety was due to his theatrical set design, which took him to the court of Augustus III of Saxony in Dresden in 1717 and to Munich. In 1720 he returned to Venice and enjoyed a happy painting moment. He traveled to several cities in the Veneto region, painting works of fine artistic merit, especially in Belluno and Padua. He also traveled to Rome, Bergamo, and Trento, tackling all genres, from landscape to historical portraits and religious painting. In 1766, he was elected to the presidency of the Accademia di Pittura in Venice, but could not complete his term because he died suddenly on August 17, 1767 in St. Mark's Square. The painting presented here, depicting Moses and the Bronze Serpent with a landscape background, is reminiscent of several similar compositions by the master in terms of its robustness of form and chromatic tenor. According to Filippo Pedrocco, it is a work datable to the beginning of the fourth decade and akin to the Entrance of Christ into Jerusalem executed in 1733 for the Scuola Grande di San Teodoro (now kept in the church of San Pietro Martire in Murano), whose sketch belonging to the Landesmuseum in Hanover is as close as ever to the painting under consideration (Cf. M. Pallucchini, La pittura nel Veneto. Il Settecento, edited by M. Lucco, A. Mariuz, G. Pavanello, F. Zava, Milan 1996, II, fig. 109). We can also recall that the narrative construction thus conceived was later employed by the author in the canvas belonging to the Church of Saints Michael and Louis in Montebelluna in 1755 (Fig. 1; Cf. Zugni-Tauro, p. 67, table 215; Cini Photo Library: https://arte.cini.it/Opere/448851). The work is accompanied by a critical card by Filippo Pedrocco. Reference bibliography: A. P. Zugni Tauro, Gaspare Diziani, Venice 1971 E. Martini, La pittura del Settecento veneto, Maniago 1982, ad vocem E. Martini, Pittura Veneta ed altro italiana dal XV al XIX secolo, Rimini 1992, ad vocem R. Pallucchini, Gaspare Diziani, in La pittura nel Veneto. Il Settecento, Milan 1996, II, pp. 86-104

Estim. 8 000 - 12 000 EUR

Tue 18 Jun

PIER DANDINI - (Florence, 1646 - 1712) Venus and Adonis Oil on canvas, 172X211.5 cm. Provenance: Florence, Pandolfini, November 26, 2019, lot 12 (as Pier Dandini) Traced back to the catalog of Pier Dandini by Sandro Bellesi, the canvas is a felicitous pictorial and compositional example of the artist, who was a masterful interpreter of the stylistic development of the late Tuscan Baroque and as attentive as ever to the influences of Pietro da Cortona, active at Palazzo Pitti between 1637 and 1647, and Luca Giordano, who during the early 1680s was engaged at Palazzo Medici Riccardi. Influences that ours also learned during his stay in Rome and Venice, where he stayed until about 1670, eager to put forward his vision as a universal artist, exhibiting a learned and conscious eclecticism. Therefore, the earlier attributions to the Flemish school and Charles Dauphin, symptomatic of his heterogeneous culture, are not surprising. In fact, Sandro Bellesi points out that the work shows only in part the typical characteristics of the artist, observing clear influences of lagoon painting and in particular to Pietro Negri, Pietro della Vecchia and Antonio Zanchi, indicative also of an execution to the youth period, shortly after 1670, the year of his return to Tuscany after a long stay in the lagoon. Probable comparisons with the altarpiece in Siena cathedral depicting the Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena and with Saint Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi receiving the veil of Purity from the Virgin and Child Jesus kept in the church of San Bartolomeo in Prato. The work is accompanied by a critical file by Sandro Bellesi. Reference bibliography: S. Bellesi, Pier Dandini and his school, Florence 2014, ad vocem

Estim. 8 000 - 12 000 EUR

Tue 18 Jun

GENNARO GRECO detto IL MASCACOTTA - (Naples, 1663 - 1714) Capriccio Oil on canvas, 52.5X102 cm. Provenance: New York, Howard W. Blake Collection New York, Christie's, April 8, 1988, lot 178 (as attributed to Gennaro Greco) Milan, private collection The meridian light that shines through the architecture in elegant blue-gray color alternations, the perspective construction and the atmospheric mimesis indicate the correctness of the attribution to the Neapolitan painter Gennaro Greco. According to eighteenth-century historical sources, the artist studied the treatise on perspective compiled by Padre Pozzo in 1693, and de' Dominici narrates that 'impraticated by those excellent rules he made beautiful pictures, drawing lines in perspective views with such intelligence' (cf. B. de' Dominici, Vite de' pittori, scultori ed architetti napoletani, Napoli 1742-44, III, pp. 553-554). These obvious qualities place Greco as a link between Viviano Codazzi and the Neapolitan capriccios of Leonardo Coccorante (active in Naples in the first half of the 18th century), inaugurating that illustrative vein devoted to fantastic landscapes with architectural capriccios and figures resolved with quick, blotchy brushstrokes, along the lines of Domenico Gargiulo. Returning to the canvas examined here, the pictorial quality of the drafts suggests, in our opinion, that its execution can be traced back to the artist. Reference bibliography: N. Spinosa, Pittura napoletana del Settecento dal Barocco al Rococò, Naples 1988, I, figs. 422; 42 K. Murawska Muthesius, The Neapolitan theater of ruins: paintings from the circle of Leonardo Coccolante and Gennaro Greco in Polish collections, pp. 74-75 in Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie, XXXIX, 1998 n 1-4, pp. 71-89 G. Sestieri, Il Capriccio Architettonico in Italia nel XVII e XVIII secolo, Rome 2015, vol. II, pp. 192-229

Estim. 2 400 - 3 600 EUR

Tue 18 Jun

PITTORE LOMBARDO DEL XVII-XVIII SECOLO - Girl in the Mirror Oil on canvas, 51X60.5 cm Provenance: Vienna, Dorotheum, Nov. 11, 2021, lot 325 (as a 17th-century French Caravaggesque painter) Already referred to a French Caravaggesque, we are persuaded that the work should be traced to a master of the Lombard school and more specifically to Antonio Cifrondi (Clusone, 1656 ; Brescia, 1730). According to Tassi (Cf. F. M. Tassi, Vite de' pittori, scultori ed architetti bergamaschi, Bergamo 1793, pp. 4, 34-41, 66), the artist learned his first lessons from the Clusone painter Cavalier del Negro, of whom nothing is known, and later moved to Bologna to attend the workshop of Marcantonio Franceschini, returning home in 1687. However, observing his production, one does not sense the characteristics of Emilian classicism, but an evident adherence to that 'painting of reality' in vogue between Bergamo and Brescia. In our case we perceive that diffuse luminosity and at the same time modulated by the chiaroscuro contrast between the figure and the background typical of the author, and so also the drafts that alternate body-like passages and diaphanous liquidities. One can always recognize in Cifrondi the expressive particularity, the scenic inventiveness, the type of the face with vermilion lips and finally the peculiarity of the gaze. Aspects that we can find in the Self-portrait from a private collection (Cf. Proni-Ferrari 2023, pp. 17-23, table 1), in the Portrait of a Young Peasant Girl of the Tosio Martinengo (Proni-Ferrari 2023, p. 64, fig. 4) and in the Portrait of a Man in Profile belonging to the Museum of Clusone. Reference bibliography: B. Belotti, Storia di Bergamo e dei bergamaschi, Bergamo 1959, V, pp. 153-155 Antonio Cifrondi, 'pittor fantastico' (Clusone, 1656 ; Brescia, 1730), Exhibition catalog edited by E. de Pascale and L. Brignoli, Bergamo 2023, ad vocem Antonio Cifrondi in Villa Zanchi and in Ponte San Pietro, exhibition catalog edited by M. S. Proni and R. Ferrari, Verona 2023, ad vocem

Estim. 2 000 - 3 000 EUR

Tue 18 Jun

ADEODATO ZUCCATI - (active in Bologna in the late 17th century) Still life with basin of flowers on a carpet Oil on canvas, 96.5X143 cm Provenance: Forli, private collection Italy, private collection Recalled by Masini 'an expert in painting au naturale' (Cf. Masini 1666 ; 1690), for Marcello Oretti, Zuccati was a pupil of Pier Francesco Cittadini, admitting, however, that he did not know his works (Ms B 128, 18th cent., c. 45). However, we know that the collection of Count Annibale Ranuzzi, whose inventory is known to us thanks to Giuseppe Campori, counted several works by the artist in 1697. While two 'countries with fruits and perspectives' were in Sedazzi's house in 1700 (Cf. Morselli, 1998, p. 412, no. 51). As we can see, biographical information is rather scarce and in ancient times, in addition to the memory provided to us by Pietro Zani, we have to wait for the intervention of Luigi Salerno, who in 1984, on the recommendation of Adriano Cera, published a canvas similar to these under examination bearing on the verso the inscription 'Del Zuccati Pittor celebre di Bologna'. Thanks to this discovery it has been possible to outline a catalog of the painter and to allow the recognition of the pair of still lifes formerly by Paolo Brisigotti (Cf. Sambo 2000 and Mazza 1994) and the Natura morta con con conca di fiori su un tappeto kept at the Opera Pia Prati in Forlì, which in terms of scenic construction and dimensions conforms perfectly to the canvas presented here (Fig. 1, cf. Colombo Ferretti 1989). The analysis of these works manifests an air of family with Cittadini's compositions but even more with Antonio Gianlisi's creations, giving the author a role as 'Mediator between Emilian and Lombard culture' (Cf. Sambo 2000). Gianluca Bocchi is thanked for the attribution. Reference bibliography: A. P. Masini, Aggiunta alla Tavola e al catalogo dei pittori e scultori moderni della Scuola di Bologna, 1666 ; 1690, c. 67 P. Zani, Enciclopedia metodica critico-ragionata delle Belle arti, Parma 1817-1824, I/19, p. 450 G. Campori, Collection of unpublished catalogs and inventories of paintings, statues, drawings from the 15th to the 19th century, Modena 1871-1872, ad indicem L. Salerno, Still Life in Italy, Milan 1984, p. 423 A. Colombo Ferretti, in La natura morta in Italia, edited by F. Porzio, F. Zeri, Milan 1989, v. I p. 488 R. Morselli, in Collections and picture galleries in seventeenth-century Bologna: inventories: 1640-1707, edited by A. Cera Sones, Los Angeles 1998, pp. 409-412, no. 51 E. Sambo, in Still Life in Emilia and Romagna. Painters, centers of production and collecting between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Milan 2000, pp. 101-102

Estim. 2 000 - 3 000 EUR

Tue 18 Jun

PIER FRANCESCO CITTADINI - (Milan, 1616 - Bologna, 1681) Circe Oil on canvas, 88.5X71 cm. A pupil of Daniele Crespi in Milan, Cittadini moved to Bologna at the beginning of the fourth decade, where he continued his apprenticeship with Guido Reni until 1637. Oretti and Abbot Lanzi describe him by highlighting his multifaceted ability to express himself in different pictorial genres, producing with equal naturalness, fascinating portraits, still lifes and delicate landscapes, expertly availing himself of models of Flemish origin, employing compositional modules of Roman classicism and in still life, adopting the Lombard examples of Evaristo Baschenis and Bartolomeo Bettera, nevertheless managing to create compositions of remarkable originality. In 1645 the artist visited Rome, and between 1650 and 1652 he was engaged with his brother Charles and Jean Boulanger in decorating the Bacchus Room in the Ducal Palace in Sassuolo, painting flowers and fruits that frame medallions painted by the French painter. The same decorative motif is also employed in the 'Four Seasons,' now preserved in the Este Museum and the Pinacoteca Comunale in Bologna. His activity as a painter devoted to still life and landscape is accompanied by a conspicuous production of portraits, a genre where the Milanese origin emerges overbearingly in the realistic style of the Lombard tradition, without neglecting the elegance and sumptuousness of images in the Roman, Venetian and local traditions, represented by Cesare and Benedetto Gennari. In the portraits, the psychological investigation of the effigies is most striking, facilitated by minute observational skills, but also by the luministic rendering, which allows him an excellent description of the clothing. The painting under consideration testifies to all the qualities attributed to the artist, which accentuate the vital charge emanating from the young woman depicted, who, by the grass leaves of a potion within the glass bottle placed on the table, the wand and the book on which mysterious formulas are glimpsed, is recognized in the figure of Circe. The style and formal setting, on the other hand, reveal the clear influence of Guido Reni and Simone Cantarini, finding numerous similarities with other large life-size half-figures painted by the artist during the Fifth Decade and published by Massimo Pulini. The work is accompanied by a critical file by Massimo Pulini. Reference bibliography: M. Pulini Pier Francesco Cittadini, Saint Ursula in Quaderni del Barocco, Ariccia Museo di Palazzo Chigi, December 20, 2008 M. Pulini in Nature and Grace. Confidential collections of great antiquarians, exhibition catalog edited by A. Giovanardi, Cesena 2012, pp. 70-71 M. Pulini, The Living Natures of Pier Francesco Cittadini and a new identity for Carlo, in About Art online, May 17, 2020 M. Pulini, Pierfrancesco Cittadini landscapes, in About Art online, May 30, 2020 M. Pulini, Pier Francesco Cittadini The Making Great and the Sacred, in About Art online, July 2020

Estim. 5 000 - 8 000 EUR

Tue 18 Jun

PITTORE LOMBARDO DEL XV-XVI SECOLO - Nativity Oil on panel, 57.5X40 cm Inscribed on verso: Rome Fran [...]6 8[...]X bre (in ancient) Dossi Provenance: Italy, private collection Referred to the Ferrara-born Dosso Dossi in the collection to which it belongs, the panel shows clear affinities with the works of Giovanni Agostino da Lodi (Lodi, c. 1470 and active between 1490 and 1515), an artist also known by the appellation of Pseudo Boccaccino assigned to him by Wilhelm Bode (See W. von Bode, Un maestro anonimo dell'antica scuola lombarda (the Pseudo Boccaccino), in Archivio Storico dell'Arte, 1890, pp. 193-195). Indeed, we owe to the German scholar the distinction between the works of Giovanni Agostino and those of Boccaccio Boccaccino (Ferrara, before 1466 ; Cremona, 1525), but we will have to wait for Malaguzzi Valeri's intervention in 1912 to know the real personality of the master, thanks to the discovery in the Bazzero collection in Milan (later in the Pinacoteca di Brera) of a painting signed 'Johes Augusti / nus Laudesis P.' (Cf. F. Malaguzzi Valeri, Chi è lo 'Pseudo Boccaccino,' in Rassegna d'Arte, 1912, 6, pp. 99-100), 'which proves to be quite similar to the paintings grouped under the Boccaccini pseudonym' (F. Moro, Giovanni Agostino da Lodi, ovvero l'Agostino di Bramantino: appunti per un unico percorso, in Paragone, XL, 1989, 473, pp. 23-61). It is not possible here to list and comment on the critical developments that occurred during the 20th century, but we can highlight the salient aspects that characterize the artist, whose Milanese training dictated by the examples of Donato Bramante, Bramantino, Leonardo, and Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio is combined with the Venetian culture of Alvise Vivarini, Antonello da Messina, and Giovanni Bellini. One can well sense this mixture by observing his first known public work: the Madonna and Child Enthroned between Saints John the Baptist, Ambrose, Augustine and George now preserved in the church of San Giacomo in Gerenzano, which proves a knowledge on the part of the author of Venetian painting and thus an early presence in the lagoon city, also attested by the Washing of the Feet dated 1500 in the Accademia Gallery. Consequently, the Lodi artist must be credited with having spread Leonardo's culture in the Veneto and, as indicated by Franco Moro, plausible his first presence in Venice during the last decade of the 15th century, a chronology that is also confirmed by the 1492 commission of the Pala dei Barcaioli del traghetto di Murano (now in San Pietro martire in Murano), ascertaining itself as his earliest work on Venetian soil and certainly an example for the young Giorgione (L. Simonetto, in Arte lombarda, 84-85, 1988, pp. 73-84; Moro 1989). Returning to the painting presented here, we perceive the preponderance of the landscape backdrop whose characters find several points of comparison. We can mention that present in the Madonna, Child and Two Devotees of Capodimonte, with the same sharp rocks characterized by geological cracks (F. Moro, in Pittura tra Adda e Serio. Lodi, Treviglio, Caravaggio and Crema, Milan 1987, p. 103, table 28), so, too, is the typology of trees that we find in the slightly later plates of the Thyssen collection (Cf. J. M. Pita Andrade and M. del Mar Borobia Guerrero, Old Masters Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Barcelona 1992, p. 184). Turning to the figure pieces, we find the face of the Virgin in the Madonna and Child with Saint Sebastian in the Galleria Estense in Modena and even more so in the Adoration of the Shepherds in the Allentown Museum, in which we can catch the similarity of the old Saint Joseph with the Magician King of the Brera Adoration, made with Marco d'Oggiono to whom the figures of the Virgin de Bimbo belong (Cf. F. Moro, in Pinacoteca di Brera. Lombard and Piedmontese Schools 1300-1535, Milan 1988, pp. 337-340, no. 150).

Estim. 5 000 - 8 000 EUR

Tue 18 Jun

ABRAHAM BRUEGHEL - (Antwerp, 1631 - Naples, 1697) Still life with flowers, fruit, female figure and landscape in the background Signed A. Bruegel F. Romae in the lower center Oil on canvas, 114X157 cm The painting has been declared to be of extraordinary artistic historical interest and subject to notification. Provenance: Rome, Ghiron Collection (1956) Rome, Gina Lollobrigida collection Bibliography: Federico Zeri Archives, no. 85551 L. Trezzani, La natura morta romana nelle foto di Federico Zeri, in La natura morta di Federico Zeri, Bologna 2015, pp. 185-192, note 9 A. Cottino, Abraham Brueghel 1631-1697. A Master of Still Life between Antwerp, Rome and Naples, Foligno 2023, p. 93, no. 38 The painting is a fundamental testimony to Abraham Brueghel's Roman activity, in which the author exhibits all his Baroque exuberance and Nordic talent for the timely description of fruits and flowers, marking the evolution of Capitoline still life in the second half of the 17th century. Nor should we forget the exceptional pictorial tradition of the Brueghel family dynasty, which ours expresses with absolute mastery and modernity, particularly in its innovative scenic and luministic conception, which lucidly delineates forms and embellishes tones. Arriving in the Eternal City in 1659, the painter quickly achieved great success and was fully welcomed into the difficult Roman art world, weaving a long correspondence with the celebrated art lover Antonio Ruffo and the Flemish merchant Gaspar Roomer, until his fame spread among the prestigious collectors of the time, who 'boasted of possessing the results of his brushwork,' so we find mention of his paintings in the Chigi, Pamphilj, Colonna, Orsini and Borghese inventories. Not to be outdone was his success in Naples (1676), well documented by the judgment expressed by De Dominici who judged him the best at painting flowers and fruits, by virtue of the mimesis and scenic amplification of his representations, far removed from the archaic and silent ones conceived by Giovan Battista Ruoppolo and Giuseppe Recco. Returning to our work, there are multiple points of comparison, see for example the similar composition published by Cottino (Cf. Cottino 2023, p. 92, no. 37), assisted for the figure piece by Guglielmo Cortese, following an illustrative formula conceived by Michelangelo da Campidoglio. The collaboration of figure painters with the famous naturamortist is in fact a well-known fact, as is also testified by a 1666 letter to Don Antonio Ruffo, in which he writes that he made still lifes with figures painted by Giacinto Brandi, Baciccio, Maratti and Guglielmo Cortese (Cf. V. Ruffo, La Galleria Ruffo a Messina nel secolo XVII, Roma 1917, pp. 172 ff., ch. IX, pp. 21-64, 95-128, 237-250). However, according to Ludovica Trezzani and the critical annotations of the notification, in this case the work is to be assigned in its entirety to the hand of the master. The idea of depicting 'Beauties Harvesting Fruits' evidently received considerable appreciation and it was Stefano Bottari in 1960 who was the first to publish the paintings, starting with a version preserved in the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden (oil on canvas, 133X98 cm), and later the subject was taken up by Dieter Graf and Eric Schleier (Cf. D. Graf; E. Schleier, William Cortese and Abraham Brueghel, in Pantheon XXXI, 1973, pp. 46-57). Reference bibliography: L. Salerno, La natura morta italiana: 1560 ; 1805, Rome 1984, ad vocem L. Salerno, Nuovi studi sulla natura morta italiana, Rome 1989, ad vocem Still Life in Italy, edited by F. Porzio and F. Zeri, Milan 1989, II p. 788 L. Trezzani, in Pittori di natura morta a Roma. Foreign artists 1630-1750, edited by G. Bocchi and U. Bocchi, Viadana 2004, pp. 117-147 A. Cottino, C. Sisi, Orti del paradiso, exhibition catalog, Caraglio 2015, p. 148

Estim. 24 000 - 32 000 EUR

Tue 18 Jun

GAETANO CHIERICI - Reggio Emilia, 1838 - 1920 Almsgiving Signed Chierici fec. and dated 1869? lower right Oil on canvas, 47X58.5 cm. Provenance: Rome, Christie's, May 30, 1995, lot 284 Brescia, Galleria d'Arte Santa Giulia Italy, private collection Bibliography: The work is archived at the Baboni Archive for 19th-century Italian Painting and will be included in the updated catalog raisonné. Best known as a genre painter for his realistic depiction of scenes of domestic life, Chierici also tackled historical and religious themes with excellent results, keeping faith with the solid academic and purist tradition in the wake of Flemish and Dutch painting of the 17th century. In Florence, in 1858, at the School of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts, he came into contact with the Macchiaioli. In fact, the theme of friars repeatedly tackled by Chierici in the 1860s and 1870s, and the subject of our paintings illustrated here, is influenced by and close to the painters Borrani and Abbati, who had repeatedly tried their hand at making these same subjects. His figurative path is oriented to deal with subjects such as cloister architectures or landscapes animated by religious figures, where the sense of the real is articulated between lights and shadows, favoring the immediacy of the pictorial drafting. In the 1960s, his art was also expressed through elegant, intense and expressive portraits, and then, from the late 1970s, he moved on to genre scenes, narrated with intense realism and a highly descriptive technique, always with a witty and personal vein. As early as 1866, Chierici retired to his hometown, where he would produce many works, sending them to exhibitions in Vienna and Munich; he then exhibited in London from 1877 to 1881, in Boston and Milan, as well as at the major international exhibitions of the time. Also during this period he would be appointed director of the School of Fine Arts in Reggio Emilia. Reference bibliography: Gaetano Chierici pittore (1838; 1920) exhibition catalog edited by E. Somaré, Milan 1938, ad vocem G. Morselli, The painting of Gaetano Chierici (1838-1920), Reggio Emilia 1964, ad vocem

Estim. 18 000 - 24 000 EUR
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