Pier Dandini (Florentine master) - 17th century Baroque Esther Ahasuerus

c.1680

An important Florentine painting from the mid-17th century. This oil-on-canvas painting, attributed to the great Italian painter Vincenzo Dandini (1609–1675), depicts a refined alleg...

Giovanni Domenico Ferrucci (Fiesole, Italy, 1619 – Lucca, Italy, post 1669) Title: The Death of Cleopatra Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: without frame 85 x 70.7 cm – with frame 10...

Domenichino, actually Domenico Zampieri (after) Bologna 1581 – 1641 Naples Rinaldo and Armida in Armida's Enchanted Garden, circa 1700 Oil on canvas (doubled) Size: 80 x 138 cm ...

Hercules and Omphale Oil on panel, 52 x 41 cm According to legend, Hercules had to make atonement and became a slave to the Lydian queen Omphale. When she found out who her slave was, she married him. Falling for his mistress and made effeminate by the luxury of court life, the former hero allowed himself to become the laughing stock of the court. He dressed in women's clothes, spun wool and did other women's work, whereas Omphale wore his lion's skin and carried a wooden club. When the time of punishment was over, the hero realised his delusion and left Omphale. So far, the painting could not be clearly assigned to an artist. Nevertheless, it impresses with its fluid and convincing painting, whose colourfulness and conception are reminiscent of the Prague School around Bartholomäus Spranger. This work follows an engraving and an etching made by Michel Dorigny in 1643 after a design by Simon Vouet. It shows the same scene but the print differs in minor details from the present painting (see e.g. the head of the lion) and the treatment of the faces seems to be painted more detailed and refined. So far there is no painting...

Corrado Giaquinto (Naples, 1703 – Naples, 1765) Venus tries to dissuade Adonis from going hunting Oil on canvas 131 x 100 cm. – With an important period frame (imperfections, mi...

Willem Muys was a Dutch, 18th-century painter of history pieces, portraits and cabinet pieces. Above all, he appears to have been active as a painter of ‘wallpaper’. Until the mid-18th century, ‘wallpaper’ was not painted on paper but on coarsely woven linen. Wealthy citizens had their mansions or country estates adorned with ‘wallpaper’ with landscapes, exotic birds or chinoiseries. Willem Muys mainly painted ‘wallpaper’, which means that few of his works have been preserved. They are hardly represented in public collections. The works of his sons, Nicolaas en Robbert, both painters, are a little less rare. The painting with Rebecca and Eliezer...

Giovanni Giacomo Sementi (Bologna, Italy, 1580 - Rome, Italy, 1636) - Pier Francesco Cittadini (Milan, Italy, 1616 - Bologna, Italy, 1681) Title: Danae Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: without frame 119 x 179 cm - with frame 140 x 200 x 12 cm, weight 35 kg Expertise by Professor Giancarlo Sestieri, art historian Publications: Carne - la materia dello spirito, exhibition catalogue curated by Father Alessio Geretti, project of the scientific catalogue curated by Father Alessio Geretti, Nicole Pravisani and Giulia Toffoletti, (21 May - 22 October 2023), Illegio, Casa delle Esposizioni, pp. 56-59; Body, Love and Feelings - Works of Ancient Masters from the 16th to the 19th century. In the paintings of Giorgio Baratti private collection, Milan, exhibition catalogue curated by Alessandro Marchi, (27 July - 18 September 2011), San Marino - Historical Centre, pp. 38-39; Giorgio Baratti Collezione. Selezione di opere d’arte antica (Giorgio Baratti Collection. Selection of ancient works of art), curated by Professor Giancarlo Sestieri and with the participation of Professor Andrea Emiliani, Grafiche Veneziane, Venezia 2011, pp. 22-23. It is a gentle and graceful Danae the one portrayed by Giovanni Giacomo Sementi. A painting in which the Milanese painter Pier Francesco Cittadini also collaborated by painting the golden basin filled with flowers to the left of the scene. The work shows various pictorial influences; from the Bolognese Emilian style, to that of Ludovico Carracci (1555 - 1619) and Guido Reni (1575 - 1642), to the Baroque and Roman style. The work features an elegant red drapery which serves as the background to the entire scene, but the real protagonist is the young woman with long red hair who is lying on a bed covered by a white sheet. The girl is naked except for a lapis lazuli blue mantle...

An important Florentine painting from the mid-17th century. This oil-on-canvas painting, attributed to the great Italian painter Vincenzo Dandini (1609–1675), depicts a refined alleg...

A follower of Baldassarre Franceschini, known as “il Volterrano” (Volterra, 1611 – Florence, 1690) Maddalena Oil on canvas, 46 x 35 cm With frame, 56 x 44.5 cm The work, an oil o...

Bartholomäus Spranger (Antwerp, 1546 – Prague, 1611) workshop Aristotle and Phyllis Oil on canvas 64 x 54 cm In frame 79 x 72 cm The curious subject of this painting, quite...