DROUOT
Thursday 18 Jul at : 16:30 (CEST)

#105: Eclectic

ArtLaRosa - +390957169129 - Email

viale Africa 12 95129 CATANIA, Italy
Information Conditions of sale
Live
Register
286 results

Lot 1 - Biagio Betti - Biagio Betti (1535-1605) - Jesus tried before the Sanhedrin cm 66 x106 Oil on canvas Unframed. Biagio Betti a pupil of Daniele Da Volterra, a lay friar of the Theatine order. Eclectic personality was in contact with the Roman artistic world but also beyond the Alps. He knew the engravings of Durer by whom he was influenced in his compositions. Stylistically he represents a late Roman Mannerism of the latter part of the 1500s. ASOR Studio Expert opinion by Professor Claudio Strinati Biagio Betti (Cutigliano c. 1545 - Rome 1615) Jesus interrogated in the Sanhedrin (oil on canvas 64 x 104 cm) The painting depicts the crucial moment in the story of Christ's Passion when the Redeemer is taken, after the Capture in the Garden of Gethsemane, to the Sanhedrin, that is, the Jewish Tribunal administered by the Sadducees and Pharisees to be interrogated about his alleged faults and subsequently condemned even though the actual condemnation was pronounced by Pilate. The scene is executed, in our painting, with remarkable skill and pictorial refinement with an impeccable style that is rigorous in its perspective definition and somewhat synthetic and compendious in the figures, as if the author of the 'work was primarily a specialized miniaturist such that he lavished all his doctrine in the analytical definition of the images accentuating their different states of mind, from the sorrowful sadness of Christ to the bureaucratic arrogance of the great priests who appear very numerous in the painting and were in fact, according to ancient sources, about seventy and all very fierce. Our painting, precisely for strictly stylistic reasons, seems to be dated to the end of the sixteenth century and to be framed precisely in that environment of miniature culture that had notable Italian and Flemish exponents at that time. Prominent among them was a painter who was also an eminent religious, the Theatine father Biagio Betti, of whom Giovanni Baglione wrote an exhaustive and learned biography, qualifying him as a cultured, authoritative personality, very influential in the debate on religious art and a skilled painter, sculptor and miniaturist himself. In that biography (published in his book Le Vite de' pittori, scultori e architetti, Roma 1642 (now in the modern edition edited by Barbara Agosti and Patrizia Tosini, Officina Libraria 2023, vol 1, p.632 ff.) the theological intent is evident and primarily doctrinal of the works executed by the Theatine painter, but with a formidable attention to the paintings' intrinsic quality and iconographic originality. Of the works cited by the Baglione few survive today, but enough survive to attribute to Biagio Betti the painting under consideration here. In fact, in the church of San Silvestro al Quirinale in Rome is preserved a large canvas, certainly autographed by this artist depicting The Dispute of Jesus with the Doctors (a subject similar, though different, to that of the work here which, unlike our painting, is a true altarpiece exemplified, iconographically speaking, on the Dürer prints much studied and known in Betti's time. And similar is the setting of our painting attributable, therefore, to the Betti with foundation also through a direct comparison with the Disputa cited above, which denotes a similar "Nordic" style though on a monumental scale, while our painting is, as noted, absolutely miniature. Moreover, Baglione clearly says that the painter Biagio Betti, "was likewise an illuminator and in parchment paper and in every other thing exquisitely colored." This seems to be the case with our painting, a most notable example of a painting-miniature of great intrinsic significance and fine quality of drafting, which is still clearly perceptible today despite some conservation problems that the work must have had but which do not in the least harm the appreciation and consequent critical judgment. I think it possible that this painting of ours was executed in conjunction with the jubilee celebrations of the year 1600 when Father Biagio Betti was at the height of his parabola and fame as an influential miniaturist and painter. A painting, therefore, remarkable on the historical artistic level and also on the doctrinal one, to which I attribute a conspicuous value of E. 25,000.00 In faith, Claudio Strinati

Estim. 4 300 EUR

Lot 3 - Simone de Wobreck - Simone de Wobreck (Haarlem 1557) - Ascent to Calvary H cm 53 x 40, in frame 63 x 48 Oil on panel Expertise of Professor Claudio Strinati: "The Ascent to Calvary bears inscribed on the back (partially covered by a parchettatura presumably applied in fairly recent times to strengthen the stability of the wood) the following inscription: Martin de Vos Antwerp 1532-1603. So the reference, which I believe was also written in recent times, is to the famous Flemish painter who was also present in Italy and left in our country distinguished works as well as a flourishing workshop. And precisely this point must be dealt with in relation to our painting. The work under consideration here, in fact, is absolutely Flemish and is with absolute certainty datable to the second half of the sixteenth century, but it does not at all denote the style, moreover unmistakable, of Martin de Vos. On the contrary, our work falls within a sphere of Flemish painting in Italy that does not derive directly from de Vos but instead coincides with a school of his countrymen collateral to him but quite distinct. Characteristic of our painting, here under consideration, is the swarming of characters who crowd around the fallen Redeemer and reflect a dual sentiment: ethical and aesthetic. On the one hand, on closer inspection, the painter vigorously depicts with harsh and almost popular accents the grief and sadness of the crowd, which is concentrated and thinned out with a very striking and engaging scenic effect; on the other hand, one can read in the work overall as a sense of derision and mockery, consistent with the story depicted. This kind of representations is typical of Flemish culture, which at a distance even remains connected, in many authors also active in Italy, to the culture of Hieronymus Bosch, dating, however, from the first half of the 16th century. But all this does not belong to the culture of de Vos, who is instead oriented toward an austere and noble classicism. Here, in our work, one sees the exact opposite of classicism. On the contrary, one sees an attitude on the part of the painter who executed the painting, of an absolutely mannerist type that corresponds with what we have noticed there. The stylistic features of our painting, therefore, are closely related to another Flemish master working in southern Italy in the second half of the 16th century, Simone De Wobreck. This is a name that may be less well known today than a de Vos, but Simone De Wobreck was a master of the first rank, active especially in Sicily where he created an important group of disciples and followers. If one compares our painting with an authentic masterpiece of De Wobreck's such as the majestic altarpiece of the Circumcision in the church of San Domenico in Castelvetrano it becomes, in my opinion, glaringly obvious how we are dealing with the same hand. Analytical and sharp, vivid and proliferating, our painting was created by an artist of the same mentality and figurative culture that we see expressed in the Castelvetrano altarpiece. Moreover, Simone De Wobreck repeatedly treated the theme of the Ascent to Calvary, as is well documented by at least two altarpieces that sources refer to him, one already in San Francesco in Caccamo and another in the church of Santa Maria Maddalena in Ciminna. Our painting, in short, must be considered a remarkable work of Flemish Mannerism in Italy, datable probably between the ninth and tenth decade of the 16th century, in the last years of the life of De Wobreck, who, born in Haarlem at an unspecified date but to be placed in the fourth decade, turns out to have disappeared, on documentary grounds, around 1596/97."

Estim. 6 900 EUR

Lot 11 - Elena Recco - Elena Recco (Naples 1654-Madrid 1715) - Still life of fish, 17th century cm 40 x cm 48, in frame cm 52 x cm 60 oil on canvas Present Expert opinion by Prof.Strinati. "Still Life of Fish" (oil on canvas, cm.37 x 47, in frame 50 x 62) is a work that falls well within the scope of the production of Elena Recco, a distinguished painter specialized in this genre, daughter of the great Neapolitan master Giuseppe Recco and long active alongside her father (as well as her little-known brother Nicola Maria) between Naples and the Royal Court of Spain to which she moved, following precisely her father, towards the end of the 17th century and where she remained for a long time, honored with very important and primary commissions. Based on Recco's (Naples 1654, Madrid 1715) known and documented biography, the painting under consideration here, from a stylistic and material point of view, certainly seems to me datable within the first decade of the eighteenth century, in the most mature phase of the distinguished artist's production. I come to this consideration by comparing our work above all with some paintings from the ancient Orsini collection of Gravina di Puglia (now totally dispersed in various properties) where truly remarkable Nature Morte di pesci by Elena Recco did indeed appear, even though the inventories sometimes erroneously report them under the name of the great father Giuseppe. I report in this regard as a school case, of great historical and artistic interest, a Natura Morta di pesci, extremely close to ours, published by Lucio Galante, in La Natura Morta in Italia, tomo secondo, Electa Milano 1989, p.971, no. 1183, under the name of Giuseppe Recco but actually an absolute masterpiece of his daughter Elena. Recco specialized exceedingly in the genre of fish painting, and our painting appears very significant for the author's typical and distinctive method of mixing images of fish as if they had been thrown in disarray on the fishmonger's counter, waiting to be distributed to various customers and patrons. The pictorial material in our case is thick and full-bodied and this too is a peculiar element that characterizes the production of this great,painter who deserves a place in her own right, and of absolute prominence, in the great and lofty history of Still Life in Naples between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.I conclude by noting the state of conservation of the painting under consideration here as very good and thus confirming its rather high intrinsic quality.I therefore estimate the painting in relation to current international market conditions at the quotation of E. 18,000.00 (eighteen thousand). In faith, Claudio Strinati"

Estim. 3 900 EUR

Lot 13 - Antonio Cifrondi - Antonio Cifrondi (Clusone 1656-Brescia 1730) - Woman with hen, 1700-1730 84x105 cm Oil painting on canvas Work devoid of frame. "In a bare, flattened bluish background, the only reference to an external spatiality, the figure of a hunched elderly woman emerges from the half-light, her forehead furrowed with wrinkles and her sturdy arms - tried by hard work in the earth - delineating her role as a countrywoman. With a restrained, naturalistic composition, the woman can be considered the true protagonist of the painting even though, in reading her vacant gaze -- tried by fatigue and age -- the observer is invited to focus on the candid bird, delicately perched on a perch filled with hay. The image of the woman is modeled through broad, textural brushstrokes imbued with sparse, warm colors, evidently perceptible in the rosy hues of the complexion, sharing in the earthy shadows that contribute to the figure's plasticity. The peculiarities of the work, its formal characteristics are affected by the influences of Lombard painting, so much so as to make it close to those secular subjects so much in vogue in the last decades of the 17th century. However, the stylistic signature revealed by the chromatic sobriety allows the work to be assigned to Antonio Cifrondi of Bergamo and placed within the first thirty years of the 18th century." In fact, after being in France he settled permanently in Brescia mindful of the acquaintance he had had with Le Brun and the direct vision of nature and everyday life that inspired transalpine painting in the 1600s. He devoted himself, therefore, to the composition of paintings where the classes of the humblest are the protagonists: figures of the poor, pitocchi, peasants, etc. The painting in question is an expression of this period, done with a fast technique, with broad brushstrokes, determined and confident. ASORstudio

Estim. 2 000 EUR

Lot 29 - Francesco Conti - Francesco Conti (Florence 1681-1760) - Annunciation 88x55 cm in frame 101.5x69 cm Oil on canvas Expert opinion by Professor Claudio Strinati. Annunciation (oil on canvas, cm 101 x 69 in frame) This is a work that, by style (the wavy and animated drafting of the figures and drapery) and iconography the Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin are both standing and of equal stature and presence in space), must be dated to the beginning of the 18th century, reflecting in part the pictorial culture of the Roman school of Carlo Maratta, probably still alive at the time of the creation of our painting under consideration here; in part the legacy of the Florentine Baroque school, less known nowadays but extremely flourishing and rich in personality especially after the passage through the city of Pietro da Cortona and Ciro Ferri who left there distinguished masterpieces whose echo can also be perceived in our painting. For reasons of style, I believe that the author of the beautiful painting under consideration here must be identified in the Florentine Francesco Conti, who as a very young man was in close contact with the Marattesque school in Rome (where he was a pupil of the eminent Giovanni Maria Morandi) but then followed his own path which led him, having returned to Florence in good time, to achieve brilliant results in the sphere of Tuscan Baroque painting marked by those characteristics of wit, formal elegance, and polite dynamism, all of which seem to me to be found in our work. A comparison with one of Conti's early youthful masterpieces, the altarpiece of the Trinity in the Florentine church of San Jacopo sopr' Arno datable by the end of the first decade of the 18th century, leads me to recognize the same hand in our painting. Incidentally, it is curious how the model of the Eternal Father, with a singular baldness and a sparse, nervous beard, would be said to be exactly the same both in the altarpiece mentioned and in our painting where he is canonically depicted sending on the earth the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. I conclude from this that our painting is an interesting and very beautiful testimony to the beginnings of an artist certainly less celebrated today than some of his other eminent countrymen and contemporaries, but of considerable interest and as such cited with merit both in the writings of the older art historians, as well as in those of some masters of twentieth-century historiography such as Matteo Marangoni, who in one of his important essays Settecentisti (but not too) fiorentini, in his volume Arte barocca, Firenze Vallecchi 1973 (2nd ed.) put well the relevance of Conti with arguments that are still very valid today Work ours, therefore, of remarkable historical significance and fine artistic quality guaranteed moreover by an excellent state of preservation. I therefore believe that the value of the painting under consideration here is, based on the current conditions of the National market as of the date of this appraisal, 25,000 euros In faith, Claudio Strinati

Estim. 3 400 EUR

Lot 31 - Angelo Inganni - Angelo Inganni (Brescia 1807-Gussago 1880) - View of Piazza dei Mercanti or The passage from Piazza dei Mercanti to the Pescheria Vecchia H cm 46.5x36 - in frame H cm 57x45 Oil on canvas Signed and dated at lower right. Expertise of Professor Claudio Strinati: "The very fine painting is signed by Angelo Inganni and is a typical work of his late period, that is, executed during the eighth decade of the nineteenth century, when the master, after various interesting events developed between Milan and Vienna, devoted himself with great commitment and fervor to the representation of daily life in the city, with a most felicitous sense of perspective and with a magnificent aptitude for narrative painting crammed with figurines that were always strongly characterized, scattering his pictures with anecdotes and episodes of all kinds that render as best they could the tumult of a lively and teeming life. From his early youth, to be fair, Inganni had followed this kind of approach, but over time his style became more minute and delicate, and our painting, here under consideration, fully reflects this extreme stylistic shift. In this work, then, one can still feel very vividly the influence, which had been decisive in his early phase, of the great "city painters" belonging to the generation that had preceded him, such as the Piedmontese Giovanni Migliara or the Venetian Giuseppe Canella. From these artists Inganni draws, precisely, that taste for the urban narrative that characterizes so many memorable moments of European painting in the first half of the 19th century. But compared to his predecessors, Inganni has more right than ever to be considered (as our painting sufficiently demonstrates) the painter par excellence of the popolo minuto and petty bourgeoisie. In our painting one stands beside the other with naturalness and simple spontaneity, but at the same time the artist's eye is amiably involved with the joys and sufferings of everyday life. All of this is dropped into a very precise perspective structure where the gaze sweeps to distant horizons looming over the closed tangle of alleys and small squares. The area of Milan represented in the painting under consideration here is the one where the painter practiced for decades, the area around the Church of San Marco, which still exists even though it has been profoundly transformed by modern urban planning. A beautiful testimony of a truly distinguished painter with a work, moreover, perfectly preserved."

Estim. 8 500 EUR