Ars Antiqua Decorative Art

17th century, Roman School Mystical marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria Oil on canvas, 32 x 23 cm Frame cm 45 x 36 The saint is depicted in front of the Virgin holding the Child portrayed with the wedding ring in his hand, enriched with a precious stone. According to the Golden Legend, Catherine of Alexandria was a very beautiful young woman, the only daughter of the king of Costa, who had refused to marry the emperor Maxentius because she was a Christian and devoted to Christ. Maxentius, unable to convince her to sacrifice to idols, had sent to call the wisest men and fifty philosophers and orators who presented themselves and tried to divert her from faith in Christ. Catherine, however, played so well that she was able to convert them, arousing the anger of the emperor who condemned them to the stake. Catherine, however, who had criticized Maxentius for the new persecutions against the Christians, was sentenced to prison without food. Abandoned for twelve days, she was fed by a dove sent by God. Maxentius then decided to execute her with the torture of the toothed wheel become her attribute iconographic; but by divine intervention this broke and the young was saved. Finally, she was beheaded and milk flowed from her neck. Catherine’s princely status is witnessed here by her sumptuous dress. The iconography of the mystical marriage was born in the fifteenth century, probably because the traditional iconographic attribute, the wheel, was sometimes so small as to look like a ring, and refers to a vision that will always remain present in the mind and heart of the saint. In Heaven she appeared to her, among the Angels and Saints, Christ the Child, in the arms of the Virgin. He took a precious ring that the Virgin Mary handed to her and put it in her finger, saying "I, your Creator and Saviour, take you in marriage; confident that you will keep you pure until you celebrate your eternal wedding with me, in Paradise" When Catherine was laughing, she found in her finger the same ring that she had seen and had in Heaven, and she considered herself forever the bride of Christ. In this extraordinary episode we can see the heart of Catherine’s religious sense, and of all her spirituality. For her, Christ is like the bridegroom, with whom there is a relationship of intimacy, communion and fidelity; he is the beloved, whom she loves above all...

Roman School, 17th century Angelica and Medoro engrave their names on the bark of a tree Oil on canvas, 65 x 48.5 cm The canvas depicts one of the most famous episodes of O...

Antonio Cifrondi (1665 - 1730), Attributed Man with stick - Saint Joseph Measures: Oil on canvas, Cm 115 x 79 - With frame, cm 139 x 103 This canvas is, for stylistic and c...

Francesco Zucco (circa 1575-1627) Gentleman’s portrait Measures: Oil on canvas, cm 120 x 140 The painting analyzed here belongs to the pictorial production of Francesco Zucc...

Flemish School, 17th century Live nature couple with animals Measures: Oil on canvas, cm 25 x 35 - With frame cm 37 x 48 The pair of canvases in question depicts two excited...

Guglielmo Napoli (Pavia, 1868 - Genoa, 1945) The betrothed Oil on panel, 46.6 x 68 cm Frame 73 x 81 cm Signed lower left "Gugl . mo Napoli Dipinse" The work in questi...

Antonio Bertoli (active between 1829 - 1842) Portraits of women (2) Oil on canvas, 41.5 x 31 cm With frame 52 x 42.5 cm Signed below A. Bertoli The two portraits examined here are by the hand of the artist Antonio Bertoli, a painter active in Florence between 1829 - 1842. He trained at the Florentine Academy, where in 1832 he obtained the prize for the nude in drawing. At the academic exhibitions of the following years he exhibited mainly portraits, including a representation of Nicolò Macchiavelli executed in 1837. An eclectic artist, he experimented with different genres: for the Villa Puccini di Scornio in Pistoia, in 1838, he was commissioned to create a history picture, The death of Francesco Ferrucci (Pistoia, Civic Museum), inspired by an episode of the novel Siege of Florence by Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi. Instead, two religious paintings date back to the 1840s: Christ chasing the merchants from the Temple and a Virgin Mary, In the portraits analyzed Bertoli depicts two half-length women taken from a foreshortening and a frontal in close pose, characterized by very similar Mediterranean features. In the first painting the woman, taken from the front, looks directly at the viewer. The wavy hair is decorated with a colorful violet and is partially covered by a white veil...

18th century Almsgiver plate with saint Brass, 46 cm diameter The alms dish, properly called "alms dish", is a container usually decorated in the shape ...

Central-northern Italy, 18th century. Pair of inlays. (2) Various types of wood, briar, 25 x 38.5 cm. Frame, 25 x 38 cm. Very rare and meticu...

Italian painter, 20th century Piazzetta San Marco Watercolor on canvas, 68 x 51 cm With frame, 88 x 62 cm Signed lower left and right Zi (?) Li The painting portrays Palazzo...