Spanish Antique

Huge Antique Oil Painting Portrait Fernando Álvarez de Toledo 3rd Duke of Alba

Portrait of a Gentleman wearing a Ruff Collar Dutch/ French artist, 18th century oil painting on copper, unframed copper board : 6.75 x 5 inches provenance: private collection, UK co...

Portrait of a Gentleman French School, 18th century oil on canvas, unframed canvas : 25 x 20 inches provenance: private collection, France condition: the painting is in sound conditi...

Artist/ School: French School, 19th century Title: Portrait of a smartly dressed gentlema from the 19th century, sporting a moustache. Medium: oil on canvas, unframed and inscribe...

Portrait of Gentleman French School, late 19th century indistinctly signed and dated oil on canvas, unframed canvas: 28 x 22 inches Provenance: private collection, France Condition: ...

Important Portrait of Philip IV, oil on canvas, 19th-century Spanish school Velázquez style Oil on canvas depicting Philip IV of Spain, depicted half-bust with his characteristic m...

This mid-17th-century Spanish oil on canvas depicts a dignified man of learning - a theologian, or perhaps a cathedral canon. Dressed in a black cassock, marked by a vertical row of...

Copy of a portrait of "Emanuele Filiberto", Italian military leader of the 1500's

Carlo Ceresa (San Giovanni Bianco 1609 - Bergamo 1679) attributable Full-length portrait of Giacomo Pesenti Oil on canvas (206 x 121 cm - in frame 212 x 133 cm.) This fascinating portrait, portraying a full-length gentleman and datable to the 17th century, illustrates the stylistic and compositional details typical of the pictorial production of the Lombardy area, Bergamo in particular. This reference is reflected in elements such as the natural light, the sober and austere setting and, above all, the subtle psychological characterisation of the face. We are inclined to identify the hand of portrait painter Carlo Ceresa, one of the most illustrious Bergamasque figure painters of the 17th century, capable of developing a style of intense realism and acute psychological investigation. In his works, and our portrait perfectly reflects his canons, an extraordinary naturalistic imprint, great realism and remarkable essentiality are evident. Those traits of severity, moral rigour and austerity typical of his portraiture find a perfect balance here: never courtly or rhetorical, his portraits are profoundly linked to the concept of counter-reform. Immortalising the main personalities of the time, he established himself as a point of reference for the Bergamasque aristocracy, from the Vertova to the Pesenti to the Secco Suardo. The subject of the portrait is Giacomo Pesenti, here immortalised life-size in a rigorous black suit, his left hand resting on a table, on which is placed the necessities for writing and a manuscript, and his right hand, with a sealed ring on his little finger, abandoned along his side while he holds his gloves. He wears a suit of incredible rigour, dressed as befits a man of his high social standing, while the sharp light focuses on his face, with an intensity that seems to be accentuated by the reflection of the white collar, with its sharp profile. For Ceresa, it is not the richness of the garment that gives value to the person portrayed, it is the need to give feeling and bring out the character of the person, and this he succeeds in marvellously, aided by his ability to capture the essence of the person and return it to us in painting through the face and light used as a strong expressive element. In fact, the image highlights that 'counter-reformed' composure typical of the portraiture of painters active in this area and era, adhering to a verism...