Baroque Art

19th Century French Bacchanalian Bronze in the 18th century style depicting two Putti, in the manner of Clodion. One putto reclines while another feeds it grapes. The Patina is worn ...

After François Girardon 1628-1715 French Pluto Abducting Proserpine Bronze This High Baroque period composition captures the famed narrative of Pluto and Proserpine from Roman mythology. The late 17th-century patinated bronze, created after François Girardon's marble composition, captures the very moment that Pluto seizes Proserpine. The anguished goddess reaches skyward, attempting to escape the god’s grasp while Pluto’s stoic face betrays his knowledge that his ploy will succeed. This pivotal moment in the mythological tale has captured the imagination of many art historical greats, from Bernini to Rubens. François Girardon’s version of the climax demonstrates incredible finesse and artistry, modeled expertly in bronze in the present work by a later sculptor. The statue brings a twist of intertwined bodies into a dynamic frenzy, paralleling the tension of the legendary story. In ancient Roman mythology, Proserpine, the beautiful daughter of Ceres — known as Persephone in Greek mythology — was picking flowers in the fields when she was suddenly abducted by Pluto, the god of the underworld, and taken to his kingdom. Consumed with grief, her mother Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, scorches the earth, stopping the growth of grain and fruit. Jupiter attempts to intervene and secure Proserpine’s return to earth, negotiating a compromise with Pluto and the Fates that allows Proserpine to be released for part of the year before returning to Pluto’s underworld. Proserpine’s journey back and forth is an allegory for the changing seasons; when Prosperine is with her mother, the earth warms and provides bountiful harvests. Upon her annual return to the underworld, however, the earth once again becomes cold and barren. After returning to France after years of training in Rome, François Girardon quickly rose to become one of the greatest artists in France. He was elected a member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1657 and would become Chancellor of the Royal Academy in 1695. The artist was approached frequently for royal commissions and Girardon’s Pluto was originally commissioned by Louis XIV for the gardens at his Palace of Versailles. It was one of four monumental marble groups intended to decorate the corners of Charles Le Brun’s never completed garden at the chateau, the Parterre d’Eau. Each group of three figures symbolized one of the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. Pluto’s association with hell made him the apt...

Lithograph with frame and glass Signed, artist unknown from the gallery

John Clostermann (Osnabrück 1660 - 1711 London) Portrait of a boy, maybe Charles Hinde Oil on canvas, 61 x 74,6 cm John Closterman (also Klosterman) was a portrait painter of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. He primarily portrayed English noblemen and European aristocratic families. His father was already an artist and he trained his son. In 1679 he went to Paris and studied with Francois de Troy. In 1681 he was in London and worked for the artist John Riley, whose studio he took over after his death. In 1696 he was invited to the Spanish court...

Marine Dutch School, 18th Century Coastal Scene with ships in a storm Gouache on prepared paper

Preparation for Carnival: a three day festival of insatiable eating, drinking and carousing that preceded the forty days of Lent, a period of penitence when the pious drank only wate...

Jean-Pierre Norblin de La Gourdaine (Polish: Jan Piotr Norblin; 15 July 1745 – 23 February 1830) was a Polish-French painter, draughtsman, engraver and caricaturist. Born in France, from 1774 to 1804 he resided in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, where he obtained citizenship. He is considered one of the most important painters of the Enlightenment in Poland. He achieved great success in Poland. Given many commissions from some of the most notable families of the country, he stayed there for many years, not returning to Paris until the early 19th century. His style showed the influence of Antoine Watteau, and combined the Rococo tradition of charming fêtes galantes and fêtes champêtres with a panorama of daily life and current political events, captured with journalistic accuracy. He created a gallery of portraits of representatives of all social classes in the last years of the Polish–Lithuanian...

This is an exclusive handprinted limited edition cyanotype. Details: + Title: Vintage Pressed Flowers Nº2 + Year: 2023 + Edition Size: 20 + Stamped and Certificate of Authenticity p...

Sorber Halle Watercolor Size: 7.0 × 9.9 on 7.6 × 10.3 inches COA provided Ref.: 924802-786

Thames Bridges – Looking West John Duffin Limited Edition Etching Printed on White 300g Somerset Paper Edition of 150 Signed – John Duffin Image Size: H 38cm x W 25cm Sheet Size: H 56cm x W 38cm x D 0.1cm This work is sold unframed Free Shipping Please Note that in situ images are purely an indication of how a piece may look Thames Bridge – Looking West is a limited edition cityscape print on London by artist, John Duffin. Duffin’s acute attention to detail gives the work a bold aesthetic. John Duffin is a painter and printmaker whose work is based on the modern environments of cities and towns, creating dynamic, cinematic images of contemporary urban life. His unique images of architecture, lighting and figures have been greatly praised and awarded, recently receiving The Most Outstanding Print Award from Sir peter Blake, he has a distinctive artistic voice and has much to say in his work about contemporary life in all of it’s manifestations. His work is in the tradition of LS Lowry...

SPANISH SCHOOL 18th CENTURY STILL LIFE WITH WALNUTS, MELON, GRAPES AND ORANGE unsigned oil on canvas 15-3/4 x 21 inches (40 x 53 cm.) framed: 24-1/2 x 28-3/4 inches (62 x 72.5 cm.) ...

This painting is inspired by the "Rest on the Flight into Egypt" by Simone Cantarini called Il Pesarese, who was an Italian painter and etcher. He is ...

Saint Erasmus or Saint Elmo (Antioch, ca. 240 – Formia, 303) was an Italian bishop and patron saint of the sailors. His attribute was the capstan, a winch on which the anchor chains were rolled up. He died as a martyr for his faith, and his bones were transferred to Gaeta in the 9th century, where they are kept in the cathedral to this day. The electric phenomenon of Saint Elmus fire is named after Saint Erasmus and the 16th C humanist Desiderius Erasmus. Little is known with certainty about Saint Erasmus' life. However, many legends may have been passed on orally until - no older writings are known with certainty. His birthplace was in present-day Syria. However, the persecution of Christians under Emperor Diocletian forced him to flee to Mount Lebanon...

Francesco Fracanzano (Monopoli 1612-Napoli 1656) Testa di vecchio Olio su tela, cm 66x52,5 La tela presenta la figura di un uomo anziano a mezza figura con lo...

Artist/ School: French School, 19th century Title: Elegant Figures within an interior, with music instruments. Medium: oil on wood panel, framed framed: 10.5 x 14.5 inches board...

Agent X Beauté du XVIIIe Siècle 3 Archival Pigment Inks on 310 gsm hahnemühle paper Year: 2022 Size: 34x26in Edition: 50 Signed, dated and numbered by ha...

Agent X Beauté du XVIIIe Siècle 3 Archival Pigment Inks on Canvas Year: 2022 Size: 74x58in Unique Signed, dated by hand COA provided Ref.: 924802-1164 -----------------------------...

Heinrich Adam Elias Borny (German, 1742-1778) • Late baroque Ink and pen drawing on laid paper (no watermark) • Sheet, ca. 29.4 x 22.7 cm • Imag...

Title: Theseus and the Centaur Artist: Antoine-Louis Barye (1795-1875) Date: 19th Century Medium: Oil on panel Signature: Signed ‘AL BARYE’ and stamped with ...

Agent X Beauté du XVIIIe Siècle 4 Archival Pigment Inks on 310 gsm hahnemühle paper Year: 2022 Size: 38x32in Edition: 50 Signed, dated and numbered by ha...

Agent X Beauté du XVIIIe Siècle 2 Archival Pigment Inks on 310 gsm hahnemühle paper Year: 2022 Size: 34x26in Edition: 50 Signed, dated and numbered by ha...

Agent X Beauté du XVIIIe Siècle 1 Archival Pigment Inks on 310 gsm hahnemühle paper Year: 2022 Size: 34x26in Edition: 50 Signed, dated and numbered by ha...

The painting represents the moment of the death of Lucretia, a Roman noblewoman who was raped by the seventh and last King of Rome-the Etruscan Tarquin the Proud-and committed suicide-in front of her husband and her father-because she couldn’t stand the violence she passed through. According to the legend, this episode caused the rebellion that overthrew the Roman monarchy and led to the transition of Roman government from a kingdom to a republic. The scene is entirely dominated by the figure of the lady, emerging from a dark background in contrast with the brightness of her skin and of the colors of her dress. The torments and agony are intensively expressed by her glance, capable of creating a strong empathizing. The shiny white skin and the pearls (symbol of virginity) in her hair are an allegory of her purity, while the red tablecloth seems predicting the violent end. The painting is characterized by lots of exquisite details (like the richly decorated knob of the knife, the ribbon that tie up the purple curtains...

Agent X Beauté du XVIIIe Siècle 1 Archival Pigment Inks on Canvas Year: 2022 Size: 74x58in Unique Signed, dated by hand COA provided Ref.: 924802-1160 ------------------------------...

Pierre Berchet, Drawing of Putti playing in a landscape, Painter of decorative history subjects; trained under La Fosse; worked in France and during the 1690s...

Agent X Beauté du XVIIIe Siècle 2 Archival Pigment Inks on Canvas Year: 2022 Size: 74x58in Unique Signed, dated by hand COA provided Ref.: 924802-1162 -...

Pieta, 9x12 inches. Oil on Panel with Dutch Ripple frame. Painting by artist Justas Varpucanskis. 21st century contemporary artwork that employs te...

Sebastiano Mazzoni Andata al calvario Olio su tela, Sec. XVI, cm 130x143; con cornice 167x153x9 Il dipinto rappresenta un episodio della Passione di Cristo cui accennano appena i Van...

This is an exclusive handprinted limited edition cyanotype. Details: + Title: Vintage Pressed Flowers Nº1 + Year: 2021 + Edition Size: 20 + St...

Philosopher - Ciro De Rosa Italia 2008 - Oil on canvas cm. 26x26 Gold leaf gilded wooden frame available on requestThe evocative portrait of Ciro De Rosa portrays an elderly man with...

Anthony of Padua or Anthony of Lisbon born Fernando Martins de Bulhoes 15 August 1195 – 13 June 1231) was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order. He was born and raised by a wealthy family in Lisbon, Portugal, and died in Padua, Italy. Noted by his contemporaries for his powerful preaching, expert knowledge of scripture, and undying love and devotion to the poor and the sick, he was one of the most quickly canonized saints in church history, being canonized less than a year after his death. He was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XII...

Serguace di Salvator Rosa Paesaggio con personaggi Olio su tela, Sec. XVII, cm 52x93,5; con cornice cm 64x146x6

Portrait of a nobleman by an unknown artist , titled "Sir" on a London label on verso. A man dressed in dark robes with a white collar looks directly at the viewer. Heavy age toning ...

Fascinating mythological story of Diana and Actaeon can be found in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Very important provenance from a royal collection. Fabulous finely carved gilt wood coeval frame . Giovanni Battista Viola...

Italian School, 18th Century, Circle of Grassi, This old master drawing is drawn in the late-Baroque or Rococo style. It depicts a woman worshipping Venus/ preparing a sacrifice for ...

Artist/ School: Italian School, 17th century, circle of Salvator Rosa (1615-1673) Title: Waterfalls in a Landscape Medium: oil painting on canvas, unframed Size: canvas: 20 x 24....

Flemish Fair (After Jan Brueghel The Elder) This is a very large and impressive version of the original painting Flemish Fair Cr. 1600. Beautiful 19th Century or earlier oil on ca...

Girolamo Troppa (Rocchette, 1636 – Roma, 1710) Cristo deposto alla croce con un angelo, Maria Maddalena e tre angioletti con i simboli della passione. Olio su tela, cm 155x200 con cornice cm 170x230 Il Cristo deposto occupa l’intera composizione dal taglio orizzontale e presenta il corpo con il capo abbandonato all’indietro, ben studiato nei dettagli anatomici dei muscoli e avvolto in fasce di lino. Al tragico evento partecipano tre angioletti con i simboli della Passione, intenti a sorreggere il velo, a raccogliere la corona...

An impressive 19th-century copy of "The Little Fruit-Seller", after Bartolome Esteban Murillo (Spanish, 1617 - 1682), by an unknown artist (1...

In Chinese, the Persian Silk tree or Mimosa (Albizia julibrissin) is called: Hé Huân Huà. The ‘Materia Medica’ describes the bark (Hé Huân Pi) to not only ...

Portrait of a Lady - Ettore Frattini Italia 2005 - Oil on canvas cm.100x70. The painting by Ettore Frattini depicts an elegant and refined noblewoman, the painting is inspired by t...

The work 'Aturalia' is part of Margriet her most recent series of works from Fruits de Rococo, where she found her inspiration in the style period of Rococo. Aturalia is together with Nartificilia a diptych, but can also be enjoyed perfectly seperate from one another. In the series Fruits de Rococo, artist Margriet Smulders takes us into the maelstrom of her thoughts about our existence. In thirty still lifes, she depicts life as a flowing river. Smulders takes us from the source to the sea, from the dark origin to the sublime end. Fascinated as she is by the cycle of life, she guides us through birth, bloom and decay, with heaven as the apotheosis. about Margriet Smulders In the works by Margriet Smulders (1955, the Netherlands), the theme ‘lust and temptation’ play a major role. Standing in front of them, her impressive photograph’s cause the feeling of being sucked into the image. Large compositions are seducing the viewer and lead the eye from one to the other detail. In her work, Smulders mostly uses exotic flowers and fruit. To arrange the objects she uses colored draperies, water and mirrors. The result looks like a detail from a mysterious fairy tale world. Even though people are absent in these surrealistic landscapes, these works seem to tell a story or hold a meaning. It feels like Margriet Smulders paints with her photo camera.

Fine 18th century engraving by French artist Jean-Jacques Lagrenée. Presented with hand cut mount and gilt filet in fine wood and gilt 'ribbon and reed' frame. Very charming renditi...

Basilius Besler Narcissus Orientalis Medio Croceus Calice Pleno Hand colored engraving 21.5"x17.5" A fine copper engraving published in the famous large flower book...

Oil work on canvas sold with frame. Total size with frame: 58x39x5 cm

Oak Leaf Peace Wreath with Dove and Serpent Around 1700 Black chalk on thin, brownish paper 39,8 x 52,7 cm Inscribed "N" in the centre left This drawing is probably by an Italian Ar...

Still Life with fruits is an original oil on canvas realized in the 16th Century by an Italian School Master. Original oil painting on Canvas. The painting represents a still life...

An engraving by Jerónimo Wierix after Marten de Vos's Saint Michael the Archangel (Iglesia de San Miguel, Córdoba) may have been a source f...

Though he is most celebrated today for his extraordinary work as an artist of ornithological and zoological subject matters, Schouman was also a prolific documenter of landscape in his native Holland. The present drawing, which depicts a view of the Castel of Vianen, fits securely into a corpus of drawings Schouman produced on the same scale and in the same distinctive combination of media, examples of which are today housed in the collection of the Koninklijk Zeeuwsch Genootschap der Wetenschappen, Middelburg. Castle Batestein (also called Batenstein ) is a castle disappeared from the Netherlands . It was built on the banks of the Lek in the small town of Vianen, then in the province of South Holland (now in the province of Utrecht ). The castle was burned down in 1696 and then demolished. Remains only the Hofpoort (or castle gate...

Roses. Canvas, oil, 90x65 cm Arturs Amatnieks (Leon) (1974) Leon (real name: Artūrs Amatnieks) is a professional artist, working in realism techniq...

A 17th century English portrait of a lady by Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680), half-length in a painted feigned oval, wearing a green silk gown with chestnut coloured cloak over one shoulder, her fair hair curled in the fashionable ringlet style of the period. Oil on canvas in an English giltwood 'Lely' frame. We are grateful to Diana Dethloff and Catharine MacLeod (who are currently working on a Lely catalogue raisonné) for their confirmation of Lely as the artist from photograph analysis of this previously unidentified early work. Provenance: Private collection Nottingham until 2021 Mellors and Kirk sale December 2000, lot 1173 The sitter is likely to have been from an upper class or aristocratic family in court circles, who were the main source of Lely`s patronage. The simple composition serves to highlight the beauty of the sitter through portraying her pale decolletage and complexion, set against the gentle gaze of her blue eyes, the soft blush of her cheeks and her full red lips. Peter Lely (1618-1680) was originally of dutch origin and became Principle Painter to the King in 1661, following in the footsteps of Van Dyck who had died in 1641. He dominated the portrait painting scene in England for over 20 years, creating a distinctive 'court look' in his work which had a strong influence on many other artists. He had an extremely successful and popular portrait practice which meant that he soon had to develop production methods that could accommodate the high demand for portraits, and also for copies and versions of them which were given as gifts to family and courtiers. The use of studio assistants was a common practice for busy artists and as with Van Dyck, Lely is known to have used specialist assistants to execute particular parts of his paintings. Artists who worked in Lely`s studio included John Baptist Gaspars who specialised in drapery painting, William Wissing, John Greenhill...

Signed and dated "N MAE / 1691" (lower right) Oil on canvas A masterful example of 17th-century Dutch portraiture, this magnificent oil on canvas comes alive with luminous color, dramatic contrast and extraordinary detail. The work was composed by Nicolaes Maes, an artist widely regarded as the most prominent portrait painter of his era in Amsterdam. Fashionably styled, Portrait of a Noble Lady exemplifies the mature style of Maes, executed with the same artistry and attention to detail he imparted on his most important private commissions. This work by Maes comes from the second half of his career and follows in the rich tradition of the great Flemish Baroque painters Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck. Like these artists, Maes excels at not only capturing his subjects with a technical perfection but also their inherent elegance and grace. The sitter is draped in luxurious white and red silks and pearls, underscoring the importance and prosperity of his wealthy clientele. She is placed against a dark backdrop, enabling a striking chiaroscuro effect characteristic of the artist’s portraits. Maes’s immense talent for detail and composition is clearly evident. In both palette and proportion, it embodies the somewhat austere style preferred by the artist, which emphasized a painstaking study of the costumes, hairstyles and accessories of his subjects. Such elaborate and highly detailed costuming in portraiture was a fashionable way to show one's wealth in the 17th century, particularly among the emerging class of wealthy merchants. Similar works by the painter can be found in the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), National Gallery (London), National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) and Philadelphia Museum of Art, among others. Nicolaes Maes was born in Dordrecht in 1634 to a prosperous cloth merchant. Around 1848, he moved to Amsterdam to study under Rembrandt for several years before returning to his native Dordrecht, where he established himself as a painter of genre scenes and portraits. In the 1650s, Maes traveled to Antwerp where he studied the work of Flemish artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens...

This remarkably fluid terracotta bozetto was made in preparation for Pietro Pacilli’s most important public commission, a large-scale marble statue of San Camillo de Lellis for the nave of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Expressively modelled, this terracotta sculpture is a rare and significant work made by a major Roman sculptor at a transformative moment of European sculpture. Pacilli began his working life on the great Baroque decorative projects initiated in the seventeenth century, but he found success as a restorer of ancient sculpture working to finish antiquities for a tourist market, becoming an important figure in the emergence of an archaeologically minded Neoclassicism. Pacilli trained Vincenzo Pacetti and provided important decorative work for the Museo Pio-Clementino, at the same time he is recorded restoring some of the most celebrated antiquities excavated and exported during the period. Pacilli was born into a family of Roman craftsmen, his father Carlo was a wood carver, and Pacilli is recorded working with him on the Corsini Chapel in San Giovanni Laternao as early as 1735. In 1738 his terracotta model of Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife won the first prize in the second class of the sculpture concorso at the Accademia di San Luca, this is particularly notable as Bartolomeo Cavaceppi came third. He worked as a carver and stuccoist completing works for the churches of San Marco and SS. Trinita dei Domeniciani Spagnoli. Pacilli operated as a sculptor and restorer of antiquities from his studio at the top of the Spanish Steps, close to Santa Trinita dei Monti, where he is listed as a potential vendor to the Museo Pio-Clementino in 1770. In 1763 Pacilli completed a silver figure of San Venanzio for the treasury of San Venanzio. He is recorded as Pacetti’s first master and it was evidently through Pacilli that he began to acquire his facility as a restorer of ancient sculpture. Pacilli, at his studio ‘poco prima dell’Arco della Regina alla Trinita dei Monti,’ exercised, what the nineteenth-century scholar, Adolf Michaelis called ‘rejuvenating arts’ on several important pieces of classical sculpture, including in 1760 the group of a Satyr with a Flute for the natural brother of George III, General Wallmoden, Hanovarian minister at Vienna. In 1765, Dallaway and Michaelis record that Pacilli was responsible for the restorations, including the addition of a new head, to the Barberini Venus which he had acquired from Gavin Hamilton. The Venus was then sold to Thomas Jenkins, who in turn passed it on to William Weddell at Newby Hall. In 1767 Pacilli exported a series of ancient busts ‘al naturale’ including portraits of Antinous, Julius Ceaser and Marus Aurelius, also a statue of a Muse and a Venus. As early as 1756 Pacilli seems to have been operating as an antiquarian, helping to disperse the collection of the Villa Borrioni. Pacilli supplied sculpture to notable British collectors, including Charles Townley, who on his first trip to Italy purchased the Palazzo Giustiniani statue of Hecate from Pacilli. Pacilli was involved with the Museo Pio Clementino from its conception, supplying busts of Julius Ceaser and a Roman Woman as well as completing stucco putti surmounting the arms of Pope Bendedict XIV to signal the entrance to the new Museo Critiano. In 1750 Il Diario Ordinario del Chracas announced that Pacilli had begun work on a sculpture of San Camillo de Lellis for St Peter’s. Camillo de Lellis founded his congregation, the Camillians, with their distinctive red felt crosses stitched on black habits in 1591. Having served as a soldier in the Venetian army, Camillo de Lellis became a novitiate of the Capuchin friars, he moved to Rome and established a religious community for the purpose of caring for the sick. In 1586 Pope Sixtus V formerly recognised the Camillians and assigned them to the Church of Santa Maria Maddalena in Rome. Camillo de Lellis died in 1614 and was entombed at Santa Maria Maddalena, he was canonised by Benedict XIV on June 26, 1746. It was an occasion that prompted the Camillians to make a number of significant artistic commissions, including two canvases by Pierre Subleyras showing episodes from San Camillo’s life which they presented to Benedict XIV. In 1750 Pacilli was commissioned to fill one of the large niches on the north wall of the nave with a sculpture of San Camillo. The present terracotta bozetto presumably had two important functions, to enable Pacilli to work out his ideas for the finished sculpture and at the same time to show his design to the various commissioning bodies. In this case it would have been Cardinal Alessandro Albani and Monsignor Giovan Francesco Olivieri, the ‘economo’ or treasurer of the fabric of St Peter’s. Previously unrecorded, this terracotta relates to a smaller, less finished model which has recently been identified as being Pacilli’s first idea for his statue of San Camillo. Preserved in Palazzo Venezia, in Rome, the terracotta shows San Camillo with his left hand clutching his vestments to his breast; the pose and action more deliberate and contained than the finished sculpture. In producing the present terracotta Pacilli has expanded and energised the figure. San Camillo is shown with his left hand extended, his head turned to the right, apparently in an attempt to look east down the nave of St Peter’s. The model shows Pacilli experimenting with San Camillo’s costume; prominently on his breast is the red cross of his order, whilst a sense of animation is injected into the figure through the billowing cloak which is pulled across the saint’s projecting right leg. The power of the restrained, axial contrapposto of bent right leg and outstretched left arm, is diminished in the final sculpture where a baroque fussiness is introduced to the drapery. What Pacilli’s terracotta demonstrates, is that he conceived the figure of San Camillo very much in line with the immediate tradition of depicting single figures in St Peter’s; the rhetorical gesture of dynamic saint, arm outstretched, book in hand, head pointed upwards was perhaps borrowed from Camillo Rusconi’s 1733 sculpture of St. Ignatius...

This is an exclusive limited edition color Giclée print, printed on matte photographic paper. This exquisite still life photo, shows a classy bouquet beautifully lit with soft light...

A pair of carved oak angels, circa 1700, with a lovely warm patina and faint traces of polychrome to the face and gilding to the body. The angels are both kn...

Charles Birnbaum is a sculptor and a self-taught photographer. He graduated from Kansas City Art Institute where he studied ceramics and was one of a select group of the esteemed Ken...

Charles Birnbaum is a sculptor and a self-taught photographer. He graduated from Kansas City Art Institute where he studied ceramics and was one of a select group of the esteemed Ken...

The painting and the preparatory drawing are offered together. Provenance Private collection, Germany, Trier, c. 1980- 2013 Saint John the Baptist Brown ink and wash over red chalk on oatmeal paper 31 x 20.5 cm Inscribed: „Ferrau Fenzonio da Faenza invt. esque … imp. da Fran. Villamena …“. bears the collector's mark of Henry Scipio Reitlinger (1882-1950; Lugt 2274a) on a tiny label glued to the verso On the reverse is a partial drawing of a Pieta, pricked for transfer. Provenance New York, Doyle, 14. October 2015, No. 6 The painting and the preparatory drawing resemble the composition of an engraving after Ferraù Fenzoni by Francesco Villamena. Drawing, engraving and painting are almost identical, except for minor differences. Even the measurements nearly correspond: painting (32 x 25,5 cm), drawing (30 x 20,5 cm), engraving (31,1 x 23,5 cm). Dr. Guiseppe Scavizzi confirmed the attribution of the present panting to Fenzoni and he dates it to c. 1590. The inscription on the drawing reads “Ferrau Fenzonio da Faenza invt. esque. . . imp. da Fran: Villamena . . .”. The engraving’s inscription also lists place and date “Ferra Fensionius inventor/F. Villamoena sculpsit Rome/Aspectu fruitur… antra puer/cum Privilegio… 1613”. Interestingly, the engraving is not mirrored as it is in most printing processes. Painting, drawing and engraving are not reversed but the same. It is remarkable to note that there are further paintings by Fenzoni which were engraved in the same order and not reverted. They also show strong parallels regarding the compositions and the measurements (see for example “Deposition of Christ” ). Ferraù Fenzoni was an Italian painter mainly active in Todi. He is also called Il Faenzone after his birthplace (Faenza). He apprenticed in Rome during the papacy of Gregory XIII and contributed to numerous fresco cycles under pope Sixtus V, such as the Loggia della Benedizioni in the Lateran Palace, the frescoes on the walls and vaults of the Scala Santa of the adjacent Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, and the decoration in the Sistine library. His expressive canvases straddle the styles of Mannerism and Baroque. In 1594, he moved to Todi. A “Last Judgement” by him is housed in the cathedral of Todi. He returned to Faenza in 1599, where he decorated chapels in the cathedral from 1612 to 1616. In 1622, he completed a “Deposition”, now in the local Pinacoteca. In 1640, Fenzoni was named “cavaliere dello speron d’oro” by Cardinal Colonna and, on 25th April 1634, he was nominated vicar and “castellano of Granarolo”. Fenzoni‘s style is characterized by a mixture of the Mannerism of the Northern Netherlands and the Italian Baroque. Saint John the Baptist, Old Master, 17th Century, By Fenzoni, Religious Scene, Rome Art...