Showing posts with label Solimena. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Solimena. Show all posts

14 Paintings, scenes from the Bible, by The Old Masters, with footnotes # 34

Nicolas Poussin
Santa Francesca Romana, c. 1657
Oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre  (France - Paris) 

Frances of Rome, Obl.S.B., (Italian: Santa Francesca Romana) (1384 – March 9, 1440) is an Italian saint who was a wife, mother, mystic, organizer of charitable services and a Benedictine oblate who founded a religious community of oblates, who share a common life without religious vows.

Frances was born in 1384 in Rome to a wealthy and aristocratic couple, and christened at the Church of St. Agnes on the famed Piazza Navona. When she was about the age of twelve, her parents forced her to marry Lorenzo Ponziani, commander of the papal troops of Rome and member of an extremely wealthy family. Although the marriage had been arranged, it was a happy one, lasting for forty years.

Frances visited the poor and took care of the sick, inspiring other wealthy women of the city to do the same. Soon after her marriage, Frances fell seriously ill. Her husband called a man in who dabbled in magic, but Frances drove him away, and later recounted to Vannozza that St. Alexis had appeared to her and cured her.

Giovanni Battista Gaulli (1639–1709) 
Frances of Rome giving alms, c. 1675
Oil on canvas
Getty museum, Los Angeles

Giovanni Battista Gaulli (8 May 1639 – 2 April 1709), also known as Baciccio, was an Italian artist working in the High Baroque and early Rococo periods. He is best known for his grand illusionistic vault frescos in the Church of the Gesù in Rome, Italy. His work was influenced by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Gaulli was born in Genoa, and initially apprenticed with Luciano Borzone. In mid-17th century. Gaulli's Genoa was a cosmopolitan Italian artistic center open to both commercial and artistic enterprises from north European countries. Gaulli's earliest influences would have come from an eclectic mix of these foreign painters and other local artists whose warm palette Gaulli adopted. In the 1660s, he experimented with the cooler palette and linear style of Bolognese classicism.

He first introduced him to Gianlorenzo Bernini in Rome, who promoted him. He found patrons among the Genoese, and was accepted into the Roman artists' guild, where he was to later hold several offices. The next year, he received his first public commission for an altarpiece, in the church of San Rocco, Rome. He received many private commissions for mythological and religious works.

At his height, Gaulli was one of Rome's most esteemed portrait painters. Gaulli died in Rome, shortly after 26 March 1709, probably 2 April. More

Giovanni Battista Gaulli (1639–1709) 
An Apostle
Oil on canvas
74 by 60.5 cm.; 29 1/8 by 23 3/4 in.
Private Collection

When her mother-in-law died, Frances became mistress of the household. During a time of flood and famine, she turned part of the family's country estate into a hospital, and distributed food and clothing to the poor. 

During a period of forced exile, much of Lorenzo's property and possessions were destroyed. In the course of one occupation of Rome by Neapolitan forces in the early part of the century, he was wounded so severely that he never fully recovered. Frances nursed him throughout the rest of his life.

Frances experienced other sorrows in the course of her marriage with Lorenzo Ponziani. They lost two children to the plague. Chaos ruled the city in that period of neglect by the pope and the ongoing warfare between him and the various forces competing for power on the Italian peninsula devastated the city. The city of Rome was largely in ruins. Frances again opened her home as a hospital and drove her wagon through the countryside to collect wood for fire and herbs for medicine. It is said she had the gift of healing, and more than sixty cases were attested to during the canonization proceedings.

Giovanni Antonio Galli, called Spadarino (1585 - 1652)
Santa Francesca Romana con l’angelo, c. 1600s
Oil on canvas

Italian painter, Giovanni Antonio Galli, called Spadarino (1585 - 1652). He was the son of a swordsmith or frabbricante di spade, earning him the moniker, "Spadarino", or roughly "Little Sword". His family were from Florence. He was recorded alongside Bartolomeo Manfredi, Jusepe de Ribera, Cecco del Caravaggio and Carlo Saraceni as one of the closest of Caravaggio's followers c. 1620.

He is documented in 1603 as "painter in the Palazzo San Marco, in the house of Cardinal Dolfin" and was still serving the Cardinal in 1620. The few other documents that relate to him attest to his presence in Rome in 1597, 1617, 1620, 1638, 1645 and 1651.

His works are of concentrated simplicity, remote from the violence of Caravaggio and characterized rather by the tender relationship between the figures and the softness and delicacy of the shadows. More

On August 15, 1425, the feast of the Assumption of Mary, she founded the Olivetan Oblates of Mary, a confraternity of pious women. In March 1433, she founded a monastery at Tor de' Specchi, near the Campidoglio, in order to allow for a common life by those members of the confraternity. This monastery remains the only house of the Institute. The community later became known simply as the Oblates of St. Frances of Rome.

Frances herself remained in her own home, nursing her husband for the last seven years of his life from wounds he had received in battle. When he died in 1436, she moved into the monastery and became the superior. She died in 1440 and was buried in Santa Maria Nova. More

Michelangelo Caravaggio
St. Jerome writing, c. 1607
Oil on canvas
Height: 117 cm (46.1 in). Width: 157 cm (61.8 in).
St. John's Co-Cathedral


Jerome (c.  347 – 30 September 420) was a priest, confessor, theologian and historian. He was the son of Eusebius, born at Stridon, a village near Emona on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia, then part of northeastern Italy. He is best known for his translation of most of the Bible into Latin (the translation that became known as the Vulgate), and his commentaries on the Gospels. His list of writings is extensive.
The protégé of Pope Damasus I, who died in December of 384, Jerome was known for his teachings on Christian moral life, especially to those living in cosmopolitan centers such as Rome. In many cases, he focused his attention to the lives of women and identified how a woman devoted to Jesus should live her life. This focus stemmed from his close patron relationships with several prominent female ascetics who were members of affluent senatorial families.
He is recognised as a Saint and Doctor of the Church by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Church, and the Anglican Communion.[6] His feast day is 30 September. More

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (29 September 1571 in Caravaggio – 18 July 1610) was an Italian painter active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1592 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on Baroque painting.
Caravaggio trained as a painter in Milan under Simone Peterzano who had himself trained under Titian. In his twenties Caravaggio moved to Rome where there was a demand for paintings to fill the many huge new churches and palazzos being built at the time. It was also a period when the Church was searching for a stylistic alternative to Mannerism in religious art that was tasked to counter the threat of Protestantism. Caravaggio's innovation was a radical naturalism that combined close physical observation with a dramatic, even theatrical, use of chiaroscuro which came to be known as tenebrism (the shift from light to dark with little intermediate value).

He gained attention in the art scene of Rome in 1600 with the success of his first public commissions, the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew and Calling of Saint Matthew. Thereafter he never lacked commissions or patrons, yet he handled his success poorly. He was jailed on several occasions, vandalized his own apartment, and ultimately had a death sentence pronounced against him by the Pope after killing a young man, possibly unintentionally, on May 29, 1606. He fled from Rome with a price on his head. He was involved in a brawl in Malta in 1608, and another in Naples in 1609, possibly a deliberate attempt on his life by unidentified enemies. This encounter left him severely injured. A year later, at the age of 38, he died under mysterious circumstances in Porto Ercole in Tuscany, reportedly from a fever while on his way to Rome to receive a pardon.

Famous while he lived, Caravaggio was forgotten almost immediately after his death, and it was only in the 20th century that his importance to the development of Western art was rediscovered. More



Roman School, circa 1700
The Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist 
Oil on copper
21.2 x 16.2cm (8 3/8 x 6 3/8in)
Private Collection

Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553)
Virgin and Child adored by the infant St John, circa 1512
Oil and tempera on lime
75.9 × 59.4 cm (29.9 × 23.4 in)
Private Collection

Lucas Cranach the Elder (c. 1472 – 16 October 1553) was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was court painter to the Electors of Saxony for most of his career, and is known for his portraits, both of German princes and those of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation, whose cause he embraced with enthusiasm, becoming a close friend of Martin Luther. He also painted religious subjects, first in the Catholic tradition, and later trying to find new ways of conveying Lutheran religious concerns in art. He continued throughout his career to paint nude subjects drawn from mythology and religion. He had a large workshop and many works exist in different versions; his son Lucas Cranach the Younger, and others, continued to create versions of his father's works for decades after his death. Lucas Cranach the Elder has been considered the most successful German artist of his time. More

North Italian School, late 16th Century, after Tiziano Vecelli, called Titian
Saint Peter Martyr 
Oil on canvas
245.5 x 150.5cm (96 5/8 x 59 1/4in).
Private Collection

Saint Peter of Verona O.P. (1206 – April 6, 1252), also known as Saint Peter Martyr, was a 13th-century Italian Catholic priest. He was a Dominican friar and a celebrated preacher. He served as Inquisitor in Lombardy, was killed by an assassin, and was canonized as a Catholic saint 11 months after his death, making this the fastest canonization in history.

He was born in the city of Verona into a family perhaps sympathetic to the Cathar heresy. Peter went to a Catholic school, and later to the University of Bologna, where he is said to have maintained his orthodoxy and at the age of fifteen, met Saint Dominic. Peter joined the Order of the Friars Preachers (Dominicans) and became a celebrated preacher throughout northern and central Italy.

From the 1230s on, Peter preached against heresy, and especially Catharism, which had many adherents in thirteenth-century Northern Italy. Because of this, a group of Milanese Cathars conspired to kill him. They hired an assassin, one Carino of Balsamo. Carino's accomplice was Manfredo Clitoro of Giussano. On April 6, 1252, when Peter was returning from Como to Milan, the two assassins followed Peter to a lonely spot near Barlassina, and there killed him and mortally wounded his companion, a fellow friar named Dominic.

Carino struck Peter's head with an axe and then attacked Domenico. Peter rose to his knees, and recited the first article of the Symbol of the Apostles (the Apostle's Creed). Offering his blood as a sacrifice to God, according to legend, he dipped his fingers in it and wrote on the ground: "Credo in Unum Deum", the first words of the Nicene Creed. The blow that killed him cut off the top of his head, but the testimony given at the inquest into his death confirms that he began reciting the Creed when he was attacked.

Dominic was carried to Meda, where he died five days afterwards. More

Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio, or Titian (1488/1490 – 27 August 1576), was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno (in Veneto, Republic of Venice). During his lifetime he was often called da Cadore, taken from the place of his birth.

Recognized by his contemporaries as "The Sun Amidst Small Stars", Titian was one of the most versatile of Italian painters, equally adept with portraits, landscape backgrounds, and mythological and religious subjects. His painting methods, particularly in the application and use of color, would exercise a profound influence not only on painters of the Italian Renaissance, but on future generations of Western art.

During the course of his long life, Titian's artistic manner changed drastically but he retained a lifelong interest in color. Although his mature works may not contain the vivid, luminous tints of his early pieces, their loose brushwork and subtlety of tone are without precedent in the history of Western painting. More

CARAVAGESQUE SCHOOL
THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPERDS, CIRCA 1640
Oil on canvas
180 x 125 cm ; 70 7/8  by 49 1/4  in
Private Collection

The Adoration of the Shepherds, in the Nativity of Jesus in art, is a scene in which shepherds are near witnesses to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, arriving soon after the actual birth. It is often combined in art with the Adoration of the Magi, in which case it is typically just referred to by the latter title. The Annunciation to the Shepherds, when they are summoned by an angel to the scene, is a distinct subject.

The Adoration of the Shepherds is based on the account in the Luke 2, not reported by any other Canonical Gospel, which states that an angel appeared to a group of shepherds, saying that Christ had been born in Bethlehem, followed by a crowd of angels saying Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth to men of good will. This Annunciation to the shepherds forms a distinct subject in Christian art and is sometimes included in a Nativity scene as a peripheral feature (even though it occurs prior to the adoration itself), as in the 1485 scene by Domenico Ghirlandaio, where it can be seen in the upper left corner. Ghirlandaio also shows a procession of Magi about to arrive with their gifts. More

The Caravaggisti (or the "Caravagesques") were stylistic followers of the 16th-century Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio. His influence on the new Baroque style that eventually emerged from Mannerism was profound. Caravaggio never established a workshop as most other painters did, and thus had no school to spread his techniques. Nor did he ever set out his underlying philosophical approach to art, the psychological realism which can only be deduced from his surviving work. But it can be seen directly or indirectly in the work of Rubens, Jusepe de Ribera, Bernini, and Rembrandt. Famous while he lived, Caravaggio himself was forgotten almost immediately after his death. Many of his paintings were reascribed to his followers, such as The Taking of Christ, which was attributed to Honthorst until 1990. It was only in the 20th century that his importance to the development of Western art was rediscovered. In the 1920s Roberto Longhi once more placed him in the European tradition: "Ribera, Vermeer, La Tour and Rembrandt could never have existed without him. And the art of Delacroix, Courbet and Manet would have been utterly different". The influential Bernard Berenson stated: "With the exception of Michelangelo, no other Italian painter exercised so great an influence." More


Jacob de Wet (I) (fl. 1632–1675)
German: Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, 2 Third 17C.
Color on panel
50 × 75.5 cm (19.7 × 29.7 in)
Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest)

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (also called the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard or the Parable of the Generous Employer) is a parable of Jesus which appears in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.

In Matthew Matt 20:1–16, Jesus says that any "laborer" who accepts the invitation to the work in the vineyard (said by Jesus to represent the Kingdom of Heaven), no matter how late in the day, will receive an equal reward with those who have been faithful the longest. More

For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. So when evening was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. 

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669)
The Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. 1637
Oil on panel
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art and the most important in Dutch history. His contributions to art came in a period of great wealth and cultural achievement that historians call the Dutch Golden Age when Dutch Golden Age painting, although in many ways antithetical to the Baroque style that dominated Europe, was extremely prolific and innovative, and gave rise to important new genres in painting.
In his paintings and prints he exhibited knowledge of classical iconography, which he molded to fit the requirements of his own experience; thus, the depiction of a biblical scene was informed by Rembrandt's knowledge of the specific text, his assimilation of classical composition, and his observations of Amsterdam's Jewish population. Because of his empathy for the human condition, he has been called "one of the great prophets of civilization. More


And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen... — Matthew 20:1–16, King James Version

Jacob Willemszoon de Wet or Jacob Willemsz. de Wet the Elder (c. 1610 – between 1675 and 1691) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, whose works were largely influenced by Rembrandt. De Wet was born and died in Haarlem. Little is known of his early life. Houbraken mentions him in passing as an art dealer of Haarlem in his biographical sketch of Philips Wouwerman, referring to him as Jan de Wet. 

De Wet left a notebook that mentions a total of 34 pupils, most famously Paulus Potter. Other notable pupils were Job Adriaensz Berckheyde, Adriaen Jansz Kraen, Johann Philip Lemke, Jan Vermeer van Haarlem I (not to be confused with Vermeer of Delft), Jacob de Wet II, and Kort Withold. He became a member of the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke in 1632. Judging from the number of pupils, and the difficulties his son Jacob II had with launching an independent career, it seems that De Wet had a large and successful practise in Haarlem. His son Jacob II was the only one of 5 children who also became a painter. More


Master of the Prodigal Son (active Antwerp, mid 16th Century)
The Story of Tobias 
oil on panel
86.2 x 120.8cm (33 15/16 x 47 9/16in)
Private Collection

A short story possibly dating from Persian times is the book of Tobit, named after the father of its hero. From the fragments of the book discovered at Qumrān, scholars now know that the original form of the name was Tobi. Tobit was from the Hebrew tribe of Naphtali and lived as an exile in Nineveh; his son was Tobias. Obeying the tenets of Jewish piety, Tobit buried the corpses of his fellow Israelites who had been executed. One day, when he buried a dead man, the warm dung of sparrows fell in his eyes and blinded him. His family subsequently suffered from poverty, but then Tobit remembered that he had once left a deposit of silver at Rages (today Teheran) in Media. He sent his son Tobias along with a companion, who was in reality the angel Raphael under the guise of an Israelite, to retrieve the deposit. During the journey, while Tobias was washing in the Tigris, a fish threatened to devour his foot. Upon instructions from Raphael, Tobias caught the fish and removed its gall, heart, and liver, since it was believed that the smoke from the heart and liver had the power to exorcise demons and that ointment made from the gall would cure blindness. On the way he stopped at Ecbatana (in Persia), where Raguel, a member of Tobias’ family, lived. His daughter Sarah had been married seven times, but the men had been slain by the demon Asmodeus on the wedding night, before they had lain with her. On the counsel of Raphael, Tobias asked to marry Raguel’s daughter, and on the wedding night Tobias put Asmodeus to flight through the stench of the burning liver and heart of the fish. Raphael went to Rages and returned with the deposit. When he returned with his young wife and Raphael to Nineveh, Tobias restored his father’s sight by applying the gall of the fish to his eyes. Raphael then disclosed that he was one of God’s seven angels and ascended into heaven. More


The Master of the Prodigal Son. Named after the large altarpiece now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna which depicts the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the Master of the present work comes very close in style to both Pieter Coecke van Aelst (1502-50) and Frans Floris (1517-1570). This stylistic affinity suggests that the artist was active in Antwerp during the second quarter of the 16th Century. The master often treated subjects from the Old Testament. More

He was born in Antwerp and is considered to have run a workshop there with several pupils. His name is derived from a painting in Vienna. He is known for landscapes and religious works, and possibly travelled to Rome. Though a monogram of "LK" was discovered in one of his paintings, to conclude that this person was the Leonart Kroes mentioned as teacher in Karel van Mander's biography of Gillis van Coninxloo is incorrect. More


Francesco Solimena (Canale di Serino 1657-1747 Barra di Napoli)
Saints Tecla, Archelaa and Susanna being taken to their martyrdom 
Oil on canvas
51.6 x 62.5cm (20 5/16 x 24 5/8in)
Private Collection

St. Archelais, St. Thecla and St. Susanna (d. 293) were Christian virgins of the Romagna region of Italy. During the persecution by Diocletian in the third century, these holy virgins dressed themselves in men’s clothing, cut their hair and went to the Italian province of Campagna. Settling in a remote area, they continued to pursue an ascetical life of fasting and prayer. They received the gift of healing from God, treated the local inhabitants, and converted many pagans to Christ.

When the governor of the district heard of these healings, he had the holy women brought to Salerno. He threatened St. Archelais with torture and death if she did not offer sacrifice to idols. With firm hope in the Lord, the saint refused and denounced the folly of worshipping soulless statues. The governor ordered the saint to be torn apart by hungry lions, but the beasts meekly lay at her feet. In a rage, the governor ordered the lions to be killed, and locked the holy virgins in prison.

In the morning, having suspended St. Archelais from a tree, the torturers began to rake her with iron utensils and pour hot tar on the wounds. The saint prayed even more loudly, and suddenly a light shone over her and a voice was heard, “Fear not, for I am with you.”

St. Archelais was defended by the power of God. When they wanted to crush her with an immense stone, an angel pushed it to the other side, and it crushed the torturers instead. A judge ordered the soldiers to behead the holy virgins, but the soldiers did not dare to put their hands upon the saints. Sts. Archelais, Thekla and Susanna then said to the soldiers, “If you do not fulfill the command, you shall have no respect from us.” Thus, the holy martyrs were beheaded in 293. More

F. Solimena. Ss. Archelais, Thecla and Susanna 
Church of San Giorgio (Salerno)


Francesco Solimena (October 4, 1657 – April 3, 1747) was a prolific Italian painter of the Baroque era, one of an established family of painters and draughtsmen. He received early training from his father, Angelo Solimena, with whom he executed a Paradise for the cathedral of Nocera and a Vision of St. Cyril of Alexandria for the church of San Domenico at Solofra.

He settled in Naples in 1674, there he worked in the studio of Francesco di Maria and later Giacomo del Po. He apparently had taken the clerical orders, but was patronized early on, and encouraged to become an artist by Cardinal Vincenzo Orsini (later Pope Benedict XIII). By the 1680s, he had independent fresco commissions, and his active studio came to dominate Neapolitan painting from the 1690s through the first four decades of the 18th century. He modeled his art—for he was a highly conventional painter—after the Roman Baroque masters. Solimena painted many frescoes in Naples, altarpieces, celebrations of weddings and courtly occasions, mythological subjects, characteristically chosen for their theatrical drama, and portraits. His settings are suggested with a few details—steps, archways, balustrades, columns—concentrating attention on figures and their draperies, caught in pools and shafts of light. Art historians take pleasure in identifying the models he imitated or adapted in his compositions. His numerous preparatory drawings often mix media, combining pen-and-ink, chalk and watercolor washes. More

AFTER BARTOLOME ESTEBAN MURILLO (Spanish, 1617-1682) 
Virgin and Child 
Oil on canvas 
157 x 107cm 
Private Collection

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (born late December 1617, baptized January 1, 1618 – April 3, 1682) was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children. These lively, realist portraits of flower girls, street urchins, and beggars constitute an extensive and appealing record of the everyday life of his times. More

Francesco Rizzo da Santacroce (active Venice, 1507-circa 1545)
The Holy Family with a female martyr saint 
oil on panel
68.8 x 98.2cm (27 1/16 x 38 11/16in).
Private Collection

The angular treatment of the drapery in the present work, along with the dramatic tonality of the sky suggest this is a typical, late work by Francesco Rizzo da Santacroce. A further characteristic of this Holy Family with a female martyr Saint is the underdrawing which is visible throughout. This peculiarity is seen in works by the artist such as his Holy Family with Saint Simon. In his article, This may simply be the result of the way the artist put together his pigments. The underdrawing is itself notable for its lack of hatching which may suggest that the artist regularly used cartoons to repeat his compositions, as his teacher Francesco di Simone da Santacroce (Santa Croce circa 1470-1508 Venice) had done before him. More

Francesco Rizzo da Santacroce, also known as simply Francesco da Santacroce or Francesco di Bernardo de' Vecchi Da Santa Croce (active 1507 – 1545) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance period, active mainly in Bergamo and Venice. He initially trained with Francesco di Simone da Santacroce, an ultimately inherited this master's studio. He was later a pupil or influenced by Giovanni Bellini or Vittore Carpaccio. He was born in the Sestiere of Santa Croce in Venice, or his family came from the hamlet of Santa Croce in Bergamo.

In 1507, he painted an Altarpiece depicting St Peter for the parish church of Lerina. By 1519, he was working in Venice, where he painted for San Cristoforo, the church of the Dominicans in the Zattere, San Francesco della Vigna (Last Supper), and Santa Maria degli Angeli, Murano (Virgin and St Jerome and Jermiah moved to San Pietro). He also painted an altarpiece for the parish church of Chirignago.

Girolamo and Pietro Paolo Rizzo were also painters and part of the same family. More





Acknowledgement: Bonhams

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others

27 Paintings, Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion, with footnotes 1

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905)
Byblis, c. 1884
Salar Jung Museum, India

In Greek mythology, Byblis or Bublis was a daughter of Miletus. Her mother was either Tragasia, Cyanee, daughter of the river-god Meander, or Eidothea, daughter of King Eurytus of Caria. She fell in love with Caunus, her twin brother.

Byblis acknowledged her love for Caunus, and despite her initial efforts to convince herself that her feelings were natural, she realized the inappropriateness of them. Unable to keep her love for Caunus a secret from him any longer, she sent him a long love letter through a servant giving examples of other incestuous relationships between the gods. Disgusted, he ran away. Believing that she could yet make him love her, she was determined to try to woo him once more. When she found out that he had fled, she tore her clothes in sorrow and was driven into madness. She followed him through much of Greece and Asia Minor until she finally died, worn out by her grief and the long journey. As she had been constantly crying, she was changed into a spring. More

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (November 30, 1825 – August 19, 1905) was a French academic painter and traditionalist. In his realistic genre paintings he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female human body. During his life he enjoyed significant popularity in France and the United States, was given numerous official honors, and received top prices for his work. As the quintessential salon painter of his generation, he was reviled by the Impressionist avant-garde. By the early twentieth century, Bouguereau and his art fell out of favor with the public, due in part to changing tastes. In the 1980s, a revival of interest in figure painting led to a rediscovery of Bouguereau and his work. Throughout the course of his life, Bouguereau executed 822 known finished paintings, although the whereabouts of many are still unknown. More

File:Jean-Jacques Henner - Byblis turning into a spring.jpg
Jean-Jacques Henner (1829–1905)
Byblis Turning into a Spring
Oil on canvas
88 × 138 cm (34.6 × 54.3 in)

Jean-Jacques Henner (1829–1905)
Byblis Turning into a Spring

Jean-Jacques Henner (15 March 1829 – 23 July 1905) was a French painter, noted for his use of sfumato and chiaroscuro in painting nudes, religious subjects, and portraits. More

Jean-Jacques Henner (1829–1905)
Andromède (1880)

Jean Jacques Henner, 1829 - 1905
Andromeda, c. 1880
Oil on wood (lid of a cigar box)
H. 26,1 cm x W. 11,9 cm

Henner depicts Andromeda, the heroine of Ovid, naked and chained to a rock, waiting for Perseus, her liberator.

This work, done on the lid of a cigar box whose blue label can be seen through the paint, was most likely one of numerous preparatory sketches for another Andromeda painted in the same year.  It could however be a later variation on the same subject, as Henner was in the habit of reworking his compositions and producing small replicas for art lovers. More

Jean-Jacques Henner (1829–1905)
Les Naïades (1877)

Bartolomeo Manfredi, Italian, 1582-1622
Cupid Chastised, c. 1613
Oil on canvas
69 x 51 3/8 in. (175.3 x 130.6 cm)
Art Institute of Chicago

This disturbing and complex painting depicts the eternal human struggle over sexuality. Cupid, who lights fires of love in people's hearts, is the son of Venus, the goddess of love. Here, Venus tries in vain to stop Mars, the god of war, from beating Cupid's naked and blindfolded body with such rage that even the doves flee.
Open to many interpretations, the most obvious is the repression of sexual love by the forces of power, war, and might. This scene connects deeply with the ambivalence and uncertainty that accompany matters of sexuality in modern society.

Bartolomeo Manfredi chose not to interpret the stories of the Bible and classical mythology as idealized subjects enacted by heroic protagonists but rather as events that happened, or could have happened, to ordinary people. In Cupid Chastised,Mars, the god of war, beats Cupid for having caused his affair with Venus, which exposed him to the derision of the other gods. Using dramatic light effects and depicting the action as close to the viewer as possible, Manfredi conveyed with great immediacy and power this tale of domestic discord, which also symbolizes the eternal conflict between love and war. More

Bartolomeo Manfredi (baptised 25 August 1582 – 12 December 1622) was an Italian painter, a leading member of the Caravaggisti (followers of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio) of the early 17th century. Manfredi was born in Ostiano, near Cremona. He may have been a pupil of Caravaggio in Rome: at his famous libel trial in 1603 Caravaggio mentioned that a certain Bartolomeo, accused of distributing scurrilous poems attacking Caravaggio's detested rival Baglione, had been a servant of his. Certainly the Bartolomeo Manfredi known to art history was a close follower of Caravaggio's innovatory style, with its enhanced chiaroscuro and insistence on naturalism, with a gift for story-telling through expression and body-language.

Manfredi was a successful artist, able to keep his own servant before he was thirty years old. He built his career around easel paintings for private clients, and never pursued the public commissions upon which wider reputations were built, but his works were widely collected in the 17th century and he was considered Caravaggio's equal or even superior. His Mars Chastising Cupid offers a tantalising hint at a lost Caravaggio: the master promised a painting on this theme to Mancini, but another of Caravaggio's patrons, Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, had taken it, and Mancini therefore commissioned Manfredi to paint another for him, which Mancini considered Manfredi's best work.

Manfredi died in Rome in 1622. Gerard Seghers (or Segers; 1589–1651) was one of his pupils More

Antonio del Pollaiolo, (c. 1431-1498)
Hercules and the Hydra,  circa 1470
17x12 cm.
Florence, Uffizi Gallery

The small panel illustrates one of the labours of Hercules, deriving from the myth. The hero can be recognised by the attributes of the pelt of the Nemean lion (which he had defeated) and the knotty club.

The Hydra of Lerna was a sort of gigantic serpent with many heads, which grew again as soon as they were cut off. Hercules managed to kill the monster by using a stratagem: he asked his nephew Iolaus to burn the wound left by each head lopped by the club so that it could not grow back, after which he buried the last head - which was immortal - under a huge boulder. More

Antonio del Pollaiuolo (January 17, 1429/1433 – February 4, 1498), was an Italian painter, sculptor, engraver and goldsmith during the Italian Renaissance. He was born in Florence. His brother, Piero, was also an artist, and the two frequently worked together. Their work shows both classical influences and an interest in human anatomy; reportedly, the brothers carried out dissections to improve their knowledge of the subject. They took their nickname from the trade of their father, who in fact sold poultry. Antonio's first studies of goldsmithing and metalworking were under either his father or Andrea del Castagno: the latter probably taught him also in painting. During this time, he also took an interest in engraving.

Some of Pollaiuolo's painting exhibits strong brutality, of which the characteristics can be studied in the Saint Sebastian, painted in 1473-1475 for the Pucci Chapel of the SS. Annunziata of Florence. However, in contrast, his female portraits exhibit a calmness and a meticulous attention to detail of fashion, as was the norm in late 15th century portraiture.

In 1484 Antonio took up his residence in Rome, where he executed the tomb of Pope Sixtus IV, now in the Museum of St. Peter's (finished in 1493), a composition in which he again manifested the quality of exaggeration in the anatomical features of the figures. In 1496 he went to Florence in order to put the finishing touches to the work already begun in the sacristy of Santo Spirito. He died in Rome as a rich man, having just finished his mausoleum of Pope Innocent VIII, also in St. Peter's, and was buried in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, where a monument was raised to him near that of his brother.

His main contribution to Florentine painting lay in his analysis of the human body in movement or under conditions of strain, but he is also important for his pioneering interest in landscape. His students included Sandro Botticelli. More

Hans Rottenhammer
MUNICH 1564 - 1625 AUGSBURG
THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS
oil on copper
32.1 by 41 cm.; 12 by 16 1/8  in.

THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS: It is recounted that Zeus held a banquet in celebration of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (parents of Achilles). However, Eris, goddess of discord was not invited, for it was believed she would have made the party unpleasant for everyone. Angered by this snub, Eris arrived at the celebration with a golden apple from the Garden of the Hesperides, which she threw into the proceedings as a prize of beauty. The apple was inscribed, "for the fairest one".

Three goddesses claimed the apple: Hera, Athena and Aphrodite and asked Zeus to judge which of them was fairest.  Zeus, reluctant to favor any claim himself, declared that Paris, a Trojan mortal, would judge their cases.

With Hermes as their guide, the three candidates bathed in the spring of Ida, then confronted Paris on Mount Ida. While Paris inspected them, each attempted with her powers to bribe him; Hera offered to make him king of Europe and Asia, Athena offered wisdom and skill in war, and Aphrodite, who had the Charites and the Horai to enhance her charms with flowers and song, offered the world's most beautiful woman (Euripides, Andromache, Helena). It was Helen of Sparta, wife of the Greek king Menelaus. Paris accepted Aphrodite's gift and awarded the apple to her, receiving Helen as well as the enmity of the Greeks and especially of Hera. The Greeks' expedition to retrieve Helen from Paris in Troy is the mythological basis of the Trojan War.

The mytheme of the Judgement of Paris naturally offered artists the opportunity to depict a sort of beauty contest between three beautiful female nudes, but the myth, at least since Euripides, rather concerns a choice among the gifts that each goddess embodies. The bribery involved is ironic and a late ingredient. More

Johann Rottenhammer, or Hans Rottenhammer (1564 – 14 August 1625), was a German painter who specialized in highly finished paintings on a small scale. He was born in Munich, where he studied until 1588 under Hans Donauer the Elder. In 1593-4 (and perhaps earlier) he was in Rome, and he then settled in Venice from 1595-6 to 1606, before returning to Germany and settling in Augsburg, working also in Munich. He died in Augsburg, apparently in some poverty, and according to some sources an alcoholic. More

CAMBIASO, Luca
[Italian Mannerist Painter, 1527-1585]
Venus and Adonis1565-69Oil on canvas, 130 x 94 cmThe Hermitage, St. Petersburg
CAMBIASO, Luca, 1527-1585
Venus and Adonis, c. 1565-69
Oil on canvas
130 x 94 cm
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

Venus and Adonis is a story in the Metamorphoses.  A narrative poem by the Roman poet Ovid, considered his magnum opus. Comprising fifteen books and over 250 myths, the poem chronicles the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar within a loose mythico-historical framework. As Adonis is preparing to go hunting, Venus "seizeth on his sweating palm" and "Backward she push'd him, as she would be thrust" (for purposes of sexual intercourse). We find next that "Panting he lies, and breatheth in her face", while Venus tells him "Be bold to play, our sport is not in sight." She persuades him to kiss her, although Adonis is not very interested, thinking he is too young, and cares only for hunting. After they part, Adonis is soon killed in a hunting "accident". More

Luca Cambiasi (surname also written Cambiaso or Cangiagio; 18 November 1527 – 6 September 1585) was an Italian painter and draftsman, familiarly known as Lucchetto da Genova. He was precocious, and at the age of fifteen he painted, along with his father, some subjects from Ovid's Metamorphoses on the facade of a house in Genoa. In 1544, at the age of seventeen, he was involved in the decoration of the Palazzo Doria, now the Prefettura, perhaps working with Marcantonio Calvi, a painter of his father's generation. He aided in the vault decoration of the church of San Matteo, in collaboration with Giovanni Battista Castello. His Resurrection and Transfiguration altarpieces for San Bartolomeo degli Armeni date from c. 1560. In 1563, he painted a Resurrection for San Giovanni Battista in Montalto Ligure.

This was followed by frescoes for the Villa Imperiale at Genoa-Turalba (also called the Palazzo Imperiali Terralba) with a Rape of the Sabines (c. 1565) and the Palazzo Meridiana (formerly Grimaldi; also in 1565). In the Capella Lercari of the Duomo di San Lorenzo, Cambiasi frescoed a Presentation and Marriage of the Virgin in 1569, remainder of chapel by Castello.

The 1911 Britannica states that Cambiasi by his thirties began to decline in skill, though not at once in reputation, owing to the vexations brought upon him by a passion which he conceived for his sister-in-law. His wife having died, and the sister-in-law had taken charge of his house and children, he failed to procure a papal dispensation for marrying her.

In 1583 he accepted an invitation from Philip II to complete for the Escorial a series of frescoes begun by Castello; and the 1911 Encyclopædia states the principal reason for traveling to Spain was that he hoped royal influence would gain favor with the Vatican for his marriage plans, but this failed. In the Escorial he executed a Paradise on the vaulting of the church, with a multitude of figures. For this picture he received 2,000 ducats, probably the largest sum that had, up to that time, ever been given for a single work. His paintings in Spain, hew to strict religious thematic. More

Frans Francken II (Antwerp 1581-1642)
The Fall of Phaethon
oil on panel
44.7 x 31.3 cm.

Phaethon was the son of the Oceanid Clymene and the solar deity Apollo. Phaethon, challenged by his playmates, sought assurance from his mother that his father was the sun god. She gave him the requested assurance and told him to turn to his father for confirmation. He asked his father for some proof that would demonstrate his relationship with the sun. When the god promised to grant him whatever he wanted, he insisted on being allowed to drive the sun chariot for a day. Placed in charge of the chariot, he was unable to control the horses. The earth was in danger of being burnt up and, to prevent this disaster, Zeus killed him with a thunderbolt. More

Frans Francken the Younger (Antwerp, 1581 – Antwerp, 6 May 1642) was a Flemish painter and the best-known member of the large Francken family of artists. He played an important role in the development of Flemish art in the first half of the 17th century through his innovations in genre painting and introduction of new subject matter. More

Paul Huet 1803 - 1869 FRENCH MEDEA (AFTER EUGÈNE DELACROIX) oil on board 14 by 9 3/8 in. 35.5 by 23.8 cm:
Paul Huet, 1803 - 1869
FRENCH
MEDEA (AFTER EUGÈNE DELACROIX)
oil on board
14 by 9 3/8 in. - 35.5 by 23.8 cm


The present work is related to Eugène Delacroix's painting Medea of 1862 (Musée de Lille) (See below).  When exhibited in Bordeaux, Huet’s composition was dated to 1864 (the year of Delacroix's death).  However, it is possible that the painting may date circa 1862 as it was completed in conjunction with Huet’s documented attempt to persuade Delacroix to make Medea’s expression reflect the impassioned murder of her children (Pierre Miquel and Marion Spencer, Paintings by Paul Huet (1803-1869) and some Contemporary French Sculpture, London, 1969, p. 24). Interestingly, such an emotional force is arguably more immediate in Huet's Medea than Delacroix's finished work.

Paul Huet (3 October 1803 – 8 January 1869) was a French painter and printmaker born in Paris. He studied under Gros and Guerin. He met the English painter Richard Parkes Bonington in the studio of Gros, where he studied irregularly from 1819 to 1822. Bonington's example influenced Huet to reject neoclassicism and instead paint landscapes based on close observation of nature. The British landscape paintings exhibited in the Salon of 1824 were a revelation to Huet, who said of Constable's work: "It was the first time perhaps that one felt the freshness, that one saw a luxuriant, verdant nature, without blackness, crudity or mannerism." Huet's subsequent work combined emulation of the English style with inspiration derived from Dutch and Flemish old masters such as Rubens, Jacob van Ruisdael, and Meindert Hobbema. More

Eugène Delacroix, 1836-1838
Medea, c. 1838
Huile sur toile
Dimensions (H × L), 260 × 165 cm
Musée de Lille


In 1818 Eugene Delacroix began to addresse the theme of Medea in his sketchbooks. His drawings, which extend until 1828, first focus on the overall composition of the table, and on the various body parts of Medea, and finally her face. Delacroix starts the work in 1836 completes it in 1838 for presentation to the Salon where it was a great success. Purchased by the State, it is exposed for a year at the Luxembourg Museum before being sent to the Lille museum. It is then presented to the World Expo 1855. 


More than twenty years later, in 1859, Delacroix made a different version of the same theme for the amateur-Bouruet Aubertot then, in 1862, two more replicas of the original picture were made. More

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix (26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school. Delacroix's use of expressive brushstrokes and his study of the optical effects of colour profoundly shaped the work of the Impressionists, while his passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist movement. A fine lithographer, Delacroix illustrated various works of William Shakespeare, the Scottish writer Walter Scott and the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. More

Oil on canvas
Italian, 1st half 18th century
Circle of Francesco Solimena (1657-1747) – Italian painter
Sacrifice of Polyxena
Remains of an old label on the stretcher frame
Dimensions: 92 x 74 cm

According to Greek legend, Achilles fell in love with the Trojan princess Polyxena, the daughter of the king of Troy. He was offered her hand in marriage if he agreed to end the war between the Greeks and the Trojans. At Polyxena's request, Achilles came to make a sacrifice to Apollo, but he was ambushed by Paris, Polyxena's brother, as he knelt at the altar. Paris shot a fatal arrow into Achilles' heel, his one vulnerable spot. Before he died, Achilles vengefully proclaimed that the treacherous Polyxena be sacrificed at his tomb.  More

Francesco Solimena (October 4, 1657 – April 3, 1747) was a prolific Italian painter of the Baroque era, one of an established family of painters and draughtsmen. More

Napoleon Liberator of:
Oil on canvas, margins relined
Italy, 1809
Francesco Alberi, (1765-1836) – Italian painter of the Neoclassicism
Napoleon as Liberatory of Italy (c. 1800).
Signed and inscribed on the lower right ‘F. Alberi dipinse per commissione del Sig. Podestà Gaet. Onesti’
Dated in an inscription on the lower links ‘LIBERATORI / SUO / ITALIA / MDCCCIX’ [Tot he liberator of Italy 1809]
Dimensions: 135 x 176.5 cm

The painting shows an allegoric depiction of Napoleon I. (1769-1821), the French Emperor and since 26 May 1805 also King of Italy. Napoleon is sitting on a throne and is in the company of Athene, the goddess of the cities, wisdom and war, as well as a female figure with a coat in emerald-green, who is handing him the Cesare’s attribute – the laurel wreath as a symbol of the Lombard crown. Behind her follows a legate of Zeus with a cornucopia, which should promise a fertile land. On the right of the throne stands Herakles, which symbolizes Napoleon’s predominance. The putto to the feet of the throne stands for the legislation to be organized in Italy. The original owner of the painting, Gaetano Onesti (1748-1825) was 1809 the mayor of the Italian town Padua, at the time when Alberi studied at the Art academy there.

Francesco Alberi (1765-1836). The painter Francesco Alberi was active in Bologna, Padua, Rimini and Rome. He got his education by Giuseppe Soleri in Rimini, after which he was a student under Domenico Corvi in Rome. Five years later he went back to Rimini, where he painted numerous famous families, such as Battaglini, Garampi, Ganganelli and Spina. In 1799 he became a professor in design on the am Lyceum in Rimini. From 1803 to 1806 he was a professor in the Academy for Fine arts in Bologna and to 1810 in Padua. Alberi painted preferentially classic Greek-Roman and historic themes.

Follower of Heinrich Füger ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE IN THE UNDERWORLD oil on canvas 72 by 97.2 cm.; 28 3/8  by 38 1/4  in.:
Follower of Heinrich Füger
ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE IN THE UNDERWORLD
oil on canvas
72 by 97.2 cm.; 28 3/8  by 38 1/4  in.


In Greek mythology, Eurydice was an oak nymph or one of the daughters of Apollo (the god of music, who also drove the sun chariot, 'adopting' the power as god of the Sun from the primordial god Helios). She was the wife of Orpheus, who tried to bring her back from the dead with his enchanting music.

Eurydice was married to Orpheus, who loved her dearly; on their wedding day, he played joyful songs as his bride danced through the meadow. One day, Aristaeus saw and pursued Eurydice, who stepped on a viper, was bitten, and died instantly. Distraught, Orpheus played and sang so mournfully that all the nymphs and deities wept and told him to travel to the Underworld to retrieve her, which he gladly did. After his music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone, his singing so sweet that even the Erinyes wept, he was allowed to take her back to the world of the living. In another version, Orpheus played his lyre to put Cerberus, the guardian of Hades, to sleep, after which Eurydice was allowed to return with Orpheus to the world of the living. Either way, the condition was attached that he must walk in front of her and not look back until both had reached the upper world. Soon he began to doubt that she was there, and that Hades had deceived him. Just as he reached the portals of Hades and daylight, he turned around to gaze on her face, and because Eurydice had not yet crossed the threshold, she vanished back into the Underworld. When Orpheus later was killed by the Maenads at the orders of Dionysus, his soul ended up in the Underworld where he was reunited with Eurydice. More

Heinrich Friedrich Füger (8 December 1751 Heilbronn – 5 November 1818 Vienna) was a German portrait and historical painter. He was a pupil of Nicolas Guibal in Stuttgart and of Adam Friedrich Oeser in Leipzig. Afterward he traveled and spent some time in Rome and Naples, where he painted frescoes in the Palazzo Caserta. On his return to Vienna he was appointed court painter, professor and vice director of the Academy, and in 1806 director of the Belvedere Gallery. More

French school, 18th century MARS AND VENUS signed and dated lower left: HF Fiago 1789 oil on paper, laid on to panel, unframed 45.5 by 32 cm.; 17 7/8  by 12 1/2  in.:
French school, 18th century
MARS AND VENUS
signed and dated lower left: HF Fiago 1789
oil on paper, laid on to panel, unframed
45.5 by 32 cm.; 17 7/8  by 12 1/2  in


Venus (Aphrodite or Venus de Milo in Greece) is betrothed to pragmatic and hardnosed Vulcan, Roman God of Fire, but she finds him too prosaic. She has a passionate affair with Mars (Ares in Greece), the product of which is a beautiful daughter, Harmonia. But Vulcan suspects what is going on. Being a blacksmith, he fashions a fine metallic mesh were Venus and Mars gets ensnared on a couch. They are then both humiliated in front of the other gods on mount Olympus (More below). More

Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510)
Venus and Mars, circa 1483
Tempera on panel
69 × 173.5 cm (27.2 × 68.3 in)
National Gallery

Mars and Venus is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. It shows the Roman gods Venus and Mars in an allegory of beauty and valour. The youthful and voluptuous couple recline in a forest setting, surrounded by playful satyrs. The painting is typically held as an ideal of sensuous love, of pleasure and play.

In the painting Venus watches Mars sleep while two infant satyrs play, carrying his helmet and lance as another rests inside his breastplate under his arm. A fourth blows a small conch shell in his ear in an effort to wake him. More

The couple is framed by two evergreen plants, the laurel and the myrtle.  The former was associated with the family of Lorenzo de’ Medici and the myrtle was associated with Venus.   In the distance, on the other side of the fields we can just make out the city of Florence, behind which rise the mountains which lie to the north of the River Arno.

If you look closely at the top right corner of the painting, just above the head of Mars you will see a swarm of hovering wasps.  So why include them?  One thought is that as the Italian word for wasps is vespe and they form part of the Vespucci’s coat of arms.  The model used for Venus was Simonetta Cattaneo, whose husband Marco was a member of the Vespucci family.  More

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, known as Sandro Botticelli (1445 – May 17, 1510), was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. He belonged to the Florentine School under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici, a movement that Giorgio Vasari would characterize less than a hundred years later in his Vita of Botticelli as a "golden age". Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century; since then, his work has been seen to represent the linear grace of Early Renaissance painting. More

The Birth and Triumph of Venus - Francois Boucher
Francois Boucher
The Birth and Triumph of Venus, c. 1740
Oil on canvas
130 x 162 cm
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden


Venus, the story goes, was born of the sea. She was the fruit of Uranus' amputated genitals, which fell to earth and, in their union with the sea, generated the Goddess of Love. 

She hovers on a canopy of mother-of-pearl, upholstered with pink and pearl-grey silk and held up by the winds and cupids. She is attended by a court of white naiads and bronzed tritons.

Gods, dolphins, fabrics, water, clouds together make up a swirling movement which Boucher has painted in cold colours: blue and turquoise. Both composition and colours belong to the Rococo. The sea blends with a greyish-blue sky and the horizon is not easily distinguishable. More

François Boucher (29 September 1703 – 30 May 1770) was a French painter in the Rococo style. Boucher is known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories, and pastoral scenes. He was perhaps the most celebrated painter and decorative artist of the 18th century. He also painted several portraits of his patroness, Madame de Pompadour (See Next). More

Circle of François Boucher
THE TRIUMPH OF VENUS
oil on canvas
65.4 by 86.3 cm.; 25 3/4  by 34 in.

Henry Howard LONDON 1769 - 1847 OXFORD HYLAS CARRIED OFF BY NYMPHS oil on canvas, unframed 112.4 by 143.5 cm.; 44 1/4  by 56 1/2  in.:
Henry Howard
LONDON 1769 - 1847 OXFORD
HYLAS CARRIED OFF BY NYMPHS
oil on canvas, unframed
112.4 by 143.5 cm.; 44 1/4  by 56 1/2  in.


Heracles took Hylas with him on the Argo, making him one of the Argonauts. Hylas was kidnapped by nymphs of the spring of Pegae, that fell in love with him in Mysia and vanished without a trace. This upset Heracles greatly, so he along with Polyphemus searched for a great length of time. The ship set sail without them. According to the Latin Argonautica of Valerius Flaccus, he never found Hylas because he had fallen in love with the nymphs and remained "to share their power and their love." More

Henry Howard RA (31 January 1769 – 5 October 1847) was an early 19th-century British portrait and history painter. More

Frans van Mieris the Younger LEIDEN 1689 - 1763 VERTUMNUS AND POMONA oil on panel 53.4 by 41.5 cm.; 21 by 16  3/8  in.:
Frans van Mieris the Younger
LEIDEN 1689 - 1763
VERTUMNUS AND POMONA
oil on panel
53.4 by 41.5 cm.; 21 by 16  3/8  in.

In Roman mythology, Vertumnus is the god of seasons, change and plant growth, as well as gardens and fruit trees. He could change his form at will; using this power, according to Ovid's Metamorphoses (xiv), he tricked Pomona into talking to him by disguising himself as an old woman and gaining entry to her orchard, then using a narrative warning of the dangers of rejecting a suitor (the embedded tale of Iphis and Anaxarete) to seduce her. The tale of Vertumnus and Pomona has been called the only purely Latin tale in Ovid's Metamorphoses. More

Frans van Mieris, the younger (24 November 1689 – 22 October 1763) was a Dutch painter. He was born in Leiden, the son of Willem van Mieris, and also followed the traditions of his grandfather, Frans's studio. Willem bequeathed his painting-room to his son Frans. Neither Willem nor Frans the younger equalled Frans the elder in artistic reputation. Frans died in Leiden. More

Sir James Palmer WINGHAM, KENT 1585 - 1658 DORNEY, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE FOUR NYMPHS IN AN ITALIANATE LANDSCAPE signed lower right: J. Palmer oil on panel, unframed 15.8 by 22.5 cm.; 6 1/4  by 8 7/8  in.:
Sir James Palmer
WINGHAM, KENT 1585 - 1658 DORNEY, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE
FOUR NYMPHS IN AN ITALIANATE LANDSCAPE
signed lower right: J. Palmer
oil on panel, unframed
15.8 by 22.5 cm.; 6 1/4  by 8 7/8  in.

Sir James Palmer painted miniature copies after pictures in the Royal Collection, which he helped to form. According to Ellis Waterhouse the present work is a copy after a composition by Cornelis van Poelenburgh. Palmer also painted portrait miniatures of James I and members of the Court in a style derived from Isaac Oliver. A man of many talents, he was elected twice as an MP and became Chancellor of the Order of the Garter under Charles I.

Circle of Monsù Desiderio THE DESTRUCTION OF TROY oil on canvas, unframed 101.5 by 180 cm.; 40 by 70 1/2  in:
Circle of Monsù Desiderio
THE DESTRUCTION OF TROY
oil on canvas, unframed
101.5 by 180 cm.; 40 by 70 1/2  in


Monsù Desiderio is the name formerly given to an artist believed to have painted architectural scenes in a distinctive style in Naples in the early seventeenth century.[1] The term Monsù, a corruption of the French monsieur, was often used by Neapolitan historians to denote a painter of foreign origin. More


Yannis Tsarouchis
The offering and two winged men
13.27 X 18.74 in (33.7 X 47.6 cm)
watercolour and body colour on paper
Creation Date:  1965
Signed


Alluding to elusive cultural symbols drawn from Greek mythology and the idealized world of a bygone era, this delightful menagerie of forms and figures reflects Tsarouchis's attitude towards painting, both as a long and rich tradition to draw from, as well as an ideal vehicle to probe into the inner world of Greekness. The shallow compositional structure coupled with a stage designer's perception of space, which played a pivotal role throughout the artist's career, build up an edifice of pure forms, an everlasting world liberated from the fleeting moment. Both scenes are animated by the presence of modern-looking male figures with angel or libellule (dragonfly) wings who convey a lyrical tone and a mood of serenity and grace, suggesting a unification of iconographic symbols in an unbroken and living Greek myth.


Fotis Kontoglou
Brigand of Olympus
36.81 X 26.77 in (93.5 X 68 cm)
wax emulsion on canvas


The leading advocate for the revival of the Byzantine pictorial tradition in Greece, Fotis Kontoglou, imaginatively combined religious sentiment and Byzantine iconographical conventions, with subject matter often drawn from modern life experiences. His passionate campaign for a secular adaptation of post-Byzantine Orthodox tradition, combined with his radical view that the frugal expressive means of Byzantine icon painting are kindred in spirit to the abstractive conceptions of modern art, had a decisive influence on Greek artists and especially on the exponents of the legendary 1930s generation.

In the Brigand of Olympus, the frontality of the figure, echoing the Fayum portraits the painter meticulously copied,1 as well as the flat rendering of space, absence of chiaroscuro, inner, otherworldly light, earthy colour and schematisation of form stem directly from the Byzantine and Post-Byzantine pictorial tradition, while the disciplined design and delicate modelling, rendered through fluent brushstrokes, evoke a mood of austerity and contrition, lending the notorious brigand a dignified appearance. 


Euan Uglow 1932–2000
Cephalus and Aurora (after Poussin), c. 1953
10.43 X 12.76 in (26.5 X 32.4 cm)
oil on board
Signed


Cephalus was married to Procris, a daughter of Erechtheus, an ancient founding-figure of Athens. The goddess of dawn, Aurora, kidnapped Cephalus when he was hunting. The resistant Cephalus and Eos became lovers, and she bore him a son named Phaethon. However, Cephalus always pined for Procris, causing a disgruntled Aurora to return him to her, making disparaging remarks about his wife's fidelity.

Once reunited with Procris after an interval of eight years, Cephalus tested her by returning from the hunt in disguise, and managing to seduce her. In shame Procris fled to the forest, to hunt with Artemis. In returning and reconciling, Procris brought two magical gifts, an inerrant javelin that never missed its mark, and a hunting hound, Laelaps that always caught its prey.

Procris then conceived doubts about her husband, who left his bride at the bridal chamber and climbed to a mountaintop and sang a hymn invoking Nephele, "cloud". Procris became convinced that he was serenading a lover. She climbed to where he was to spy on him. Cephalus, hearing a stirring in the brush and thinking the noise came from an animal, threw the never-erring javelin in the direction of the sound – and Procris was impaled. As she lay dying in his arms, she told him "On our wedding vows, please never marry Eos". Cephalus was distraught at the death of his beloved Procris, and went into exile.

Later, Cephalus helped Amphitryon of Mycenae in a war against the Taphians and Teleboans. He was awarded with the island of Samos, which thereafter came to be known as Cephallenia. 

Cephalus never forgave himself over the death of Procris, and he committed suicide by leaping from Cape Leucas into the sea. More

Euan Uglow 1932–2000 was an English painter. He trained in London at Camberwell School of Art from 1948 to 1951 and from 1951 to 1954 at the Slade School of Fine Art, where he came under the influence of William Coldstream. His early figurative style adapted a form of planar drawing derived from Alberto Giacometti's work of the 1920s and applied it to a Classical structure, derived from Paul Cézanne, with an intensity of colour unrivalled by his teachers of the Euston Road School. Musicians (1953; London, Tate) reinterpreted the Impressionist theme of figures in a landscape by combining directly observed elements with a deliberately contrived backdrop painted on the studio wall.
Uglow was consistently concerned with formal relationships within a self-sufficient system, whatever the subject. He graduated colour according to a tonal scale and used drawing to define three-dimensional form and tactile surfaces. The proportions of the images and of the canvas itself are often mathematically derived, as in the Nude from Twelve Regular Vertical Positions from the Eye (1967; U. Liverpool). There is a strong conceptual element in Uglow's work, with each picture regarded as a specific project with clearly defined aims. The end product unambiguously reveals the history of its making by a prolonged and entirely conscious process of analysis and synthesis, combining objectivity with a private and often quirky passion. More

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Acknowledgement: Old Master PaintingsBonhams