Bacchanal with Ceres, Bacchus and Venus

Circle of Bernardo Castello (1557-1629) The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist 1600-1615 circa Oil on canvas in gilded frame Measures in cm: 84 x 63 cm (104 x 84 cm including frame) Measures in inch: 33.07 x 24.80 in (40,95 x 33,08 in including the frame) One of the most widespread iconographies in Italian painting from the Renaissance onwards, that of the Holy Family, is set in a sober and at the same time elegant interior, as the presence of the gold-edged green curtain that closes the space like a backdrop states. Whether it takes place in the intimacy of the house in Nazareth, as in the painting presented here, or it is placed outdoors, the scene includes the presence in the role of protagonists of the Madonna and Child Jesus, flanked by the protective figure of Joseph, always held a slightly aloof. In some cases, including ours, the Child is in dialogue with the little John the Baptist, thus alluding to the role played by the latter in the history of salvation, as the gesture of Jesus explicitly indicates in our canvas, who blesses the one who will be destined to baptize him in the waters of the Jordan. The 'room' dimensions, the calm religious intonation that pervades the representation, underlined by the very evident presence of the haloes, attest that the painting was conceived for the private devotion of its client and probably intended for a bedroom or for the walls of a small home chapel. The cleaning carried out in recent times allows you to appreciate the bright and lively chromatic range, orchestrated on the refined harmony between the shades of the Virgin's robes - blue and carmine red - and the bright green of the curtain that forms the backdrop to the scene. A particularly delicate pictorial drafting, well appreciated in the soft rendering of the faces and limbs of the two children - observe, for example, the suffused chiaroscuro transitions of the face of Jesus - is combined with a sensitive and tender description of the 'affects', allowing us to place this painting in the context of the painting of the Catholic Counter-Reformation and of the principles of verisimilitude and naturalness advocated by it in reaction to the expressive licenses and formal abstractions of the Mannerist figurative culture derived from Michelangelo's lesson. The return to a sober and juxtaposed pictorial language and simplified compositional schemes, often inspired by the early sixteenth century examples of Raphael and Andrea del Sarto, which we also recognize in our Holy Family, characterizes the work of numerous artists scattered throughout the various centers of the Peninsula , from the Bologna of the Carracci, to the Tuscany of Santi di Tito, to the Marche of Federico Barocci, up to Rome, Naples and Milan, where Camillo Procaccini and Guglielmo Caccia...

Antonio Calza (1653-1725) Scena di Battaglia Olio su tela in cornice dorata Dimensioni: 45x60 cm (68,5 x 84,5 cm inclusa la cornice) Fine del XVII secolo Nacque nel 1653 a Verona d...

Towards Stow By Eleanor Woolley [September 2020] original and hand signed by the artist Oil Pain on Canvas Image size: H:50 cm x W:50 cm Complete Size of Unframed Work: H:50 cm x W:...

Wonderful impressionist painting. Full of light, color, and movement. "The Flamenco Dancer by J. Charles Arter ( American 1860-1923). Oil on canvas. Signed upper left. Circa 1900. Unframed. Born in Hanoverton, Ohio, Charles Arter studied in Cincinnati and Paris at the Academie Julian. He had studios in Venice, London and New York and painted portraits of many famous personages including Pope Pius X...