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HOW TO GET TO MODENAFIERE

Arriving by plane:
By car the exhibition center is only 20 minutes far from Bologna Marconi Airport. It is available also a shuttle service to Modena. For detailed information www.aerbus.it
Flight information: www.bologna-airport.it
In addition, the exhibition center is 45 minutes far from Verona Catullo Airport and one hour and 15 minutes from Milan Linate Airport

Arriving by train:
The Modena railway station is connected with the main Italian cities; for further information you can consult the website www.ferroviedellostato.com
From the station you can take bus no. 9 that will take you directly to the exhibition center (Bus Stop: Fiera, it is near the entrance).
Reach Modena by train and take advantage of special discounts.

Arriving by car:
A1motorway: Exit Modena Nord, at the intersection with the Brenner motorway. The exhibition center can also be reached from the north and south ring roads of Modena.

Arriving by pubblic trasport:
The exhibition center can be reached taking the bus no. 9 of the urban transport line (Bus Stop: Fiera, it is near the entrance). For further information: www.setaweb.it

Arriving by taxi:
– 10% discount for the routes:
Modena Train Station – ModenaFiere
ModenaFiere – Modena Train Station
Discounts are reserved for COTAMO Taxis, control the abbreviations placed on the front sides of the taxis.
Radiotaxi tel 0039/059/374242

MODENANTIQUARIA 36th ANTIQUE SHOW

The treasure chest of Beauty reveals its secrets and treasures at ModenaFiere.
A sought-after destination and meeting point for art collectors, designers, Experts in search of masterpieces for large international collections or museums and lovers of art and refinement.

ANTIQUITIES, DECORATIONS & DESIGN FOR PARKS, GARDENS AND RENOVATIONS, 29th EDITION

All the elements and ideas for a garden of excellence.
Outdoor antiques for all those who love to be surrounded by unique objects and furnishings that make the difference.

ITALIAN MASTERPIECES FROM THE 13TH TO THE 20TH CENTURY, II EDITION

Modenantiquaria presents the second edition of Sculptura new thematic space dedicated to Sculpture which consolidates the ambition to become an annual event for all collectors and enthusiasts. In recent years, sculpture has awakened an exceptional market interest: it is therefore the project that was missing, a suitable place to learn about new trends, authors, proposals, and quotations.

GALLO FINE ART and “The Four Seasons” by Bertos in Carrara marble for Sculptura 2023!

Sculptor and founder. Of Venetian origins, he worked in Rome at the end of the XVII century and in Venice at the beginning of the XVIII century. Known for a brief memory of Zani Bertos, he is the creator of sculptural groups in marble that take your breath away for their dynamism and sensory involvement.

Bertos’ shapes and schemes are very reminiscent of those of Giambologna due to the tormented and nervous manner that involves all the senses of those who admire his marbles. The works are presented to the viewer as bizarre pyramidal compositions closed within a decorative line, with figures with serpentine shapes, in acrobatic poses, imitating in this the virtuosity of the Flemish and German ivorists of the seventeenth century.

Francesco Bertos
(1678 -1741)
The Four Seasons
Carrara marble, cm 77 x 56 x 40

For all animal lovers: Brun Fine Art will exhibit exceptional pieces by Sirio Tofanari, “Prince of Animalier movement”, in the II Edition of Sculptura, Italian Masterpieces from the XIII to the XX century” at ModenaFiere.

It was precisely the king Umberto of Savoy, after buying one of his bronze gazelles, who launched Tofanari as an animalier artist!

“Animals don’t pose on command”, explained the artist, “with them you need to know how to find the moment and know how to exploit it all, assimilate it, distil it. And then you must please the animals: I know what it means to spend hours in front of the subjects without stealing their image with technological means, but instead allowing them to gradually give us their soul”. And he added jokingly “the artist is like the pig, good after death”. But a different fate occurs him. A Florentine, born in 1886, he devoted himself to the sculpture of animals, becoming famous in Europe and Latin America as “the prince of animal lovers”. He died in Milan in 1969.

Ugo Ojetti, his great friend, admired “the delicate patient work almost like a goldsmith, first on the wax to be entrusted to the founder, then on the bronze to be chiselled and patinated”. And Professor Antonio Storelli wrote that «the art of Sirio Tofanari, the one for which he was and is recognized and appreciated, was that of being able to represent, even in the immobility of the bronze material, “alive” animals, with skins vibrant with light and matter».

We await you at Modenantiquaria!

Sirio Tofanari, bronze Sculpture of a Dog
Signed on the base: Sirio Tofanari, dated on the base: 1924 Firenze, Bronze
Fond. Tortolini Firenze, 50 x 42 x 33 cm

Petra, the “indoor garden” of Modenantiquaria, presents itself in a new guise: no less than 3,000 square meters of greenery designed by the best Italian nurserymen, a true dialogue between ancient times and nature. Here there are hundreds of suggestions for those who have an outdoor space or a park and are looking for curious and original furnishings.

Imposing statues, terracotta amphorae, wrought iron gates, ancient flower vases, fountains and marble basins, but also entire greenhouses and winter gardens. All unique pieces, which can be admired in Petra, the Modenantiquaria indoor garden, from 10 to 19 February at ModenaFiere: an entire “green” pavilion that offers a totally different setting from that of a classic fair. Here visitors find antiques for outdoors, to enrich the green areas of prestigious homes, but not only.

Petra offers solutions of any type, taste, and size to those who want to furnish, design or renovate a garden, a farmhouse or a second home. The most important galleries offer visitors customized exterior design solutions, capable of transforming any space into a unique and original environment. Among works, ideas and materials of the best quality, anyone here can shape their own space in their own image and likeness.

In Petra all the pieces are unique and can provide original ideas for re-reading the spaces of the house and reinterpreting them in a creative way, as well as precious ideas for interior design, even for the most modern: a column designed for the garden can become an original and impactful piece if placed in the living room.

Great novelty 2023: with the ticket (also free) of Modenantiquaria you can admire the great exhibition of Palazzo Magnani, Reggio Emilia, ‘Restless art. The urgency of creation’, at a reduced price!!!

By keeping the Modenantiquaria ticket (even a free one), you can obtain a reduced ticket for “Restless art. The urgency of creation”, at Palazzo Magnani in Reggio Emilia until 12 March, the thematic exhibition that explores, along the thin red line of history, the more than ever topical theme of identity.

One hundred and forty works including paintings, sculptures, drawings, graphics, artist’s books, fifty-seven artists, protagonists of the twentieth century and of today’s panorama, in dialogue with selected authors of Italian and international art brut and with authors whose unpublished works come from the San Lazzaro’s Archive in Reggio Emilia, today one of the largest collections of this type in Europe.

From Paul Klee, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Jean Dubuffet to Hans Hartung and Anselm Kiefer, from Antonio Ligabue to Maria Lai, Alighiero Boetti, Emilio Isgrò and Carla Accardi, the exhibition presents to the public “a restless art” born of personal and collective, of that expressive urgency of the artist and of the exploration of the infinite faces and expressions of human identity.

Just present the Modenantiquaria ticket (or the exhibitor pass) at the cash desk to obtain a reduction on the entrance ticket.

Modenantiquaria the Beauty of History, the Excellence of Tradition.

Stories of angels and deadly sins: Stefano Maria Legnani known as “Legnanino” and the superb work “Loth and his daughters” in Iotti Antichità.

The story of LOTH AND HIS DAUGHTERS, taken from the Book of Genesis, tells about Sodom and Gomorrah which with their sins had exceeded all limits and for this reason God had decided to destroy them with fire.

Loth, Abraham’s nephew, lived at the entrance of the city of Sodom and, being a just man, God had sent him two angels to inform him of the destruction of the city. Loth hosted the two beautiful and young Angels, but the corrupt sodomites asked to let the two foreigners out to abuse them.

To protect the angels, Loth proposed the two daughters in exchange, but the sodomites went wild and tried to break down the door when the angels intervened and blinded them. After trying to warn the inhabitants of Sodom of the danger, without being believed, the angels woke Lot at dawn and ordered him to leave the city with his family and not turn around to look.

God then brought brimstone and fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah and destroyed them.

Lot’s wife, despite being warned not to look back, did it anyway and thus turned into a pillar of salt. Lot and his daughters hid in a mountain cave in a deserted area. The daughters were worried that they could not procreate and one night they made their father drink wine and the eldest went to bed with him and he did not notice it. The older sister, after having committed incest, urged the younger sister to do the same. From these two incest two children were born: from the eldest daughter was born Moab, the father of the Moabites who still exist today; from the younger one the “Son of my people” came to the light. This is the father of the Ammonites who exist to this day.

The pleasures of life with Raffaello Pernici – Best Ceramics and the “triumph of Bacchus” (Turin Lenci manufacture)

How beautiful youth, who flees though!
Who wants to be happy, either:
of tomorrow there is no certainty.

Bacchus here with Ariadne, Burning for each others love,
Time plays tricks and slips away,
So happily they stay together
With these nymphs and other spirits
They are happy all the time.

The carnival song “Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne” by Lorenzo de’ Medici, hymn to love and worldly pleasures including wine and food, celebrates the “triumph” of the god Bacchus and his wife Ariadne, while they lead a joyful parade on a chariot followed by other characters from classical mythology linked to their history. They are masterfully represented here in the work “triumph of Bacchus” by the Lenci manufacture. Undoubtedly the most important of the great Turin manufacture both in terms of size, plasticity and extreme rarity, being in fact the first model in the Lenci catalogue.

In the work, as narrated in mythology, we find Ariadne who became the bride of Bacchus after having collected her on the island of Nassau when she was abandoned by Theseus; the satyr Silenus, master of Bacchus in his youth, and Midas king of Phrygia. He finds Silenus when he gets lost drunk in the woods and brings him back to the god, obtaining from him the fatal gift of turning everything into gold and the satyrs and nymphs who participate in the joyful procession of Bacchus.

From the collection of the great Maria Callas a rare and prestigious Carrari in Galleria Enrico Lumina at Modenantiquaria 2023!

The Enrico Lumina Ancient Italian Paintings Gallery is bringing a painting of rare value to Modenantiquaria 2023, presented here in preview.

The “Holy Conversation” by Baldassarre Carrari, as well as for its undoubted quality of realization that led it to be notified and for the exceptional nature of the painter, boasts a very particular provenance.

It was in fact purchased by the current owner in 2007 at the Sotheby’s auction in Milan in which more than 300 lots that belonged to Maria Callas and then kept by the family of her husband, Giovanni Battista Meneghini, were sold.

The story between the two is known and certainly not idyllic. Meneghini was a wealthy entrepreneur who loved the life of Veronese high society and lived as a golden bachelor in a luxurious hotel. He met Maria Callas in 1947, when she was still at the dawn of her career, and he was enraptured to the point of proposing the so-called “six-month deal”: the time in which he would keep her to allow her to become successful.

The two, despite the enormous age difference (almost thirty years) fell in love, and married two years later, when Callas’s career was already skyrocketing.
However, the marriage was short-lived: about ten years later, Maria met her great and tormented love of life, Aristotle Onassis, and separated from Meneghini.
However, a strange twist of fate wanted him, now eighty-two years old, to become the heir of his wife, who died under mysterious circumstances, at the age of only 53, thus also acquiring her entire and prestigious collection of works of art.

BALDASSARRE CARRARI
Forlì 1460 – Ravenna 1516
Conversation
Oil on canvas, cm 103×90

Extraordinary 18th century game table in Giusti Antichità at Modenantiquaria 2023!

The game table is a piece of furniture, usually of fine workmanship, which has now disappeared in modern homes, if not for a purely decorative function.

Nevertheless, since the Middle Ages it has entertained generations of nobles and wealthy merchants, experiencing various evolutions over the centuries and a real golden age in the courts of the 18th century.

Gambling has always been a hobby widely practiced by the wealthier social classes. However, before the reign of Louis XIV, no effective production of tables for it had been defined. Usually, any table was taken, a velvet or linen drape was placed over it, and an evening of endless games of cards or checkers began.

It was in the eighteenth century that the table acquired a specific function based on its use, thanks to the rumoured gambling addiction of the French court.
The best craftsmen of the time then began to design highly specialized tables, specially designed for the most popular games: chess, checkers, the much-loved tric-trac, etc., thus leaving us with extremely refined and often very elaborate, modular, or even equipped with drawers and secret compartments.

The extraordinary game table, presented to Modenantiquaria 2023 by Giusti Antichità and here in preview, with its elegant book-like opening and a curious small drawer inserted in the band, is a splendid example.

Game table
Modena first half of the century XVIII
75 x 85 x 42.5 cm

Modenantiquaria 2023 is enriched by an important relationship with Toto Bergamo Rossi, Venetian Heritage Director, who promotes and preserves the Venetian artistic heritage.

We are grateful and honoured to be able to announce this important collaboration with an undisputed protagonist of the art scene by quoting his own words: “I am happy to be able to involve as many people as possible in accessing and purchasing “Beauty”… so that everyone pays more attention to our history and therefore to the paintings and furnishings that are part of our DNA. I have been a restorer for many years, I have written important volumes dedicated to Venetian art and now I manage the Venetian Heritage Foundation and through important funding I deal with the restoration and protection of the artistic heritage of the Serenissima, the Dalmatian coast up to Greece … we take care of important exhibitions in Venetian palaces, for example, the large Ca’ d’Oro project is now underway. From the friendship with many exhibitors who have made the history of Modenantiquaria, this important collaboration and the idea of promoting Modenantiquaria were born” – these are the words of Toto Bergamo Rossi, Director of Venetian Heritage.

THE PASSION OF COLLECTING. Modena and the Estensi with Toto Bergamo Rossi, Venetian Heritage Director. Alessandra Di Castro, Vice President of the Italian Antique Dealers Association (AAI).
Pietro Cantore, Treasurer of the Italian Antiques Dealers Association (AAI) and President of the Modena Antiques Dealers Association. Moderator Leonardo Piccinini.

“SCULPTURA” II Edition! GREAT PREVIEW 2023.
Chivalric Virtue and Honour: Alessandra Di Castro and the Knight of Malta by Jean-Baptiste Boudard.

The prestigious Alessandra Di Castro Gallery presents, in preview, for the II Edition of “SCULPTURA. Italian Masterpieces from the 13th to the 20th Century.” the extraordinary “Bust of a Knight of Malta” by Jean-Baptiste Boudard.

Who are the Knights of Malta really? The Knights of St. John, the Knights Hospitaller or the Knights of Malta are the names attributed to this order founded in Jerusalem which dates to the 11th century and is still active today. The order was founded in 1050 by a group of men who decided to build a hospital to assist the pilgrims who arrived every year in the Holy Land.

After having obtained the consent of the Pope, it began to grow and expand; hospitals were founded in Rhodes and in other cities, and the knights distinguished themselves as a hierarchical, military and welfare order.
Nowadays the Knights of Malta are recognized in 110 countries as a chivalric order, indeed we can really define it as a religious order dependent on the Holy See with charitable and humanitarian purposes.

The members of the Order can be defined as Catholic gentlemen animated by altruistic nobility of mind and behaviour. All knights respond to the condition established in ancient times for the conferment of noble titles: having distinguished themselves for virtues. The chivalric character of the Order still has great moral value today because it denotes the spirit of service, self-denial and discipline that animates the knights. In Italy there are three Grand Priories of the Knights of Malta (Lombardy and Venice, Rome, Naples, and Sicily) which bring together all the members of the Order.

The beautiful marble bust of a Knight of Malta (as indicated by the eight-pointed cross on his chest), in wig, armor and cloak, which is immediately recognizable as a work of Franco-Italian eighteenth-century sculpture, will be presented in the II Edition of Sculptura at ModenaFiere. The art critic Andrea Bacchi specifies that ” Although there is no evidence to identify the person portrayed, based on a stylistic analysis and thanks also to a specific detail of immense importance using the method perfected by Giovanni Morelli, the sculpture is attributed to the French artist Jean-Baptiste Boudard.”

Boudard, an artist of French origins, is the author of great masterpieces dedicated to the sweetest figures of mythology, Bacchus, Ariadne, Zephyr, Apollo, Silenus and Egle…Immense masterpieces now located in the Garden of Palazzo Ducale in Parma. Indeed, in 1765 he became a citizen of Parma and was appointed first court sculptor and superintendent for the Duke of sculpture and ornamentation.

Jean-Baptiste Boudard
(Paris 1710 – Sala Baganza 1768)
Bust of a Knight of Malta
Marble, h. 83cm x 61 x 31

A seductive and unusual journey among the moonlight heirs of nineteenth-century Romanticism in REVE ART!

The Nocturne in 20th century art: this is the exhibition theme that will be proposed in this XXXVI edition of Modenantiquaria by Reve Art based on a project by Clara Santini. A seductive and unusual journey among the moonlight heirs of nineteenth-century Romanticism, the cascades of secessionist stars, the vibrant, yet brutal chromatic kaleidoscopes of Expressionism; from the forgetful atmospheres of Venice, cloaked in D’Annunzio’s misty decadent movement, up to the mysterious scenic cosmographies of the abstract art of the Fifties. Twenty paintings, all different, but equally illuminated by the shadow of a Hungarian memory. Clara Santini

FERRUCCIO SCATTOLA and “The fires in Venice” of 1929: Ferruccio Scattola’s painting is discreet and gentle, the light is soft and glides over everything. His works are made with a dreamy but very concrete naturalism. Scattola tells himself this: “After a few courses of study, I began to paint on my own, without guidance, remaining at first somewhat hesitant between entering the Academy or working with some master. I decided neither one thing nor the other and continued to study nature for myself. But nature, the study, and the love that I have dedicated to it, don’t really lead me to love too objective forms in art; on the contrary, I am convinced that the excellence of a work consists in translating the truth, through the sensitivity of the artist, into that elaborate and emotional form which is called style”.

Important works by Scattola are in the Gallery of Modern Art in Rome and precisely “Impressions of the market of Assisi”, “The farrier” and “The clays of Volterra”. “End of March” is in the Modern Art Gallery of Milan. Other works can be found in the Querini Stampalia Museum in Venice, in the Marangoni Museum in Udine, in the Revoltella Museum in Trieste, in Paris it is located “Night in San Gimignano”.

FERRUCCIO SCATTOLA
(Venice, 1873 – Rome, 1950)
The fires in Venice, 1929
Oil on canvas, cm. 69×78.5

Signed lower left.
On the back: Label of the Ministry of Education. General Directorate of Fine Arts documenting the painting’s participation in the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition. The label bears the name and address of the artist, the title of the work, the price in pesetas. Exhibitions 20 May 1929 – 15 January 1930, Barcelona, International Exhibition

The poignant sweetness of a desperate love in Tornabuoni Arte- Arte Antica: GREAT PREVIEW 2023

The figure of Moses is known to all for the heroic deeds narrated in the exodus, first the division of the waters of the Nile.

Only a few, on the other hand, know the origins of Moses, starting with his name, which in turn has to do with the waters.

Born into a Jewish family under the dominion of the Pharaoh, Moses was a child of extraordinary beauty, so much so that his mother kept him hidden for three months before making the desperate decision to abandon him in the hope of giving him a better future. He then placed it in a basket and let the waters of the river decide its fate. Providence wanted the Pharaoh’s daughter, who went down to the river to bathe, to notice the child and finally decide to keep him and call him Moses, or “pulled out of the water“.

Giuseppe Mancinelli‘s work presented by Tornabuoni Arte – Arte Antica for the Modenantiquaria 2023 edition, here in preview, focuses precisely on the tragic moment of Moses’ abandonment, summarizing in bright colors and delicate brushstrokes, all the sweetness of the desperate hope of a mother forced to give up her beloved son.

Moses abandoned by his mother
Giuseppe Mancinelli
(Naples, 1813 – Castrocielo, 1875),
Oil on canvas, c. 181×255
Tornabuoni Arte – Arte Antica

Sacred affections and visual caresses: the Madonna by “Sassoferrato” in the Giamblanco Gallery at Modenantiquaria 2023!

The Madonna and Child with the Infant Baptist, oil on canvas, 74 x 60 cm, Giovanni Battista Salvi known as Sassoferrato.

We report the words of the art critic Massimo Pulini who can exhaustively render the immense value of this work.
“Extreme delicacy of gestures makes the figures touch in a visual caress that disposes to languor. Three different spells and as many declinations of thoughts can be appreciated in this domestic scene of sacred affections. The astonished Mother is the one furthest from the present and perhaps she is already forwarded into the mystery that awaits her. Her lively Son seems to respond to our gaze, which comes from the outside and finally the coin-shaped pupil of the hermit boy finds the more satisfying contemplation in observing the cousin’s peaceful face. It all takes place in an interior, even if a slice of window, on the right side of the canvas, opens up to the vision of a landscape that declines towards diaphanous mountains on the horizon before meeting, in the sky, a stratified scale of clouds. Enclosed in a perimeter of precise design, each material is smooth and untouched, both the flesh tones, of three different pinks, and the compact fabrics like painted stucco, and the brown wall in the background which gently illuminates around the figures without the need to become a sunburst. It is precisely this volume, from stationary objects resting on a shelf, that gives a suspension to human action and divine time so that the convergence of those absences becomes something abstract, like a mental prayer. The expedient of never repeating the same interpretation of a subject finds a hidden spiritual reason in the almost mystical discipline of Sassoferrato. However, it should be noted that the oil on canvas editions found up to now, such as the one in the Fesh Museum in Ajaccio or the one passed through the Bertolami auctions on May 13, 2022, are the fruit of collaboration within the Master’s workshop, while only this example can currently be register among the autographs of limpid execution.

Gnomons and ancient sundials, breath-taking hand-painted frescoes in HISTORYA by IVAN CESCHIN Gallery for PETRA 2023! Great Preview!

Frescoes and decorations entirely handmade able of enrich internal and external environments to transform and enhance the spaces of the house.

Natural pigments, unrepeatable and personalized shapes that move along the blurred boundaries between design and craftsmanship, decoration and art, perfect for telling stories that combine tradition and modernity in a unique way, even in the contemporary home. Environments and spaces embellished by art and beauty improve the quality of life.

The frescoes entirely handmade with ancient techniques and natural pigments, sometimes embellished with gold leaf or Venetian stucco work for a touch of elegance and refinement, are inspired by the great masters of the past with the challenge of reinterpreting and adapting to the dynamism of our times.

Great protagonist in ROBERTAEBASTA Gallery.
DARTH VADER arrives from STAR WARS at Modenatiquaria 2023!!!

And who doesn’t know him? Once a Jedi Knight, Darth Vader was seduced by the dark side of the Force under the influence of Darth Sidous, and thus became one of the main perpetrators of the Jedi Purge, a set of actions undertaken by the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious to eliminate the Jedi Order concurrent with the creation of the Galactic Empire in 19BBY which resulted in the near-total extinction of the Jedi.
He quickly became a very important figure within the Empire, acting as the right hand of the Emperor and trying to thwart the nascent Rebel Alliance. When Vader discovered the existence of his son Luke Skywalker, legendary Jedi and Hero of the Galaxy, he tried together with the Emperor to make him go to the dark side.
Instead, it was Luke who convinced his father to return to the light and to rebel against his master.

Star Wars – Life-size Darth Vader statue made in 1997 in a limited edition, numbered 418 of 500 pieces and licensed by Lucasfilm Ltd.
Michael Burnett Studios handcrafted each of these statues using reference photographs and actual molds, blueprints, photos, and visits to the Lucasfilm archives to exactly replicate the costume worn by David Prowse in The Empire Strikes Back.

Plastic, latex, glass fiber, with functioning lighting system, certificate of authenticity, dimensions 84 cm x 48 cm x 220 cm H

Fantasy and seduction in the “Attilio Cecchetto Antiquario” Gallery.

The “Architectural Capriccio” by Francesco Battaglioli in the Attilio Cecchetto Antiquario Gallery. The term ‘architectural capriccio’, or simply ‘capriccio’, refers to an unusual composition, of a non-religious, imaginative nature, sometimes enlivened by figures and characterized by architectural elements, inspired by real monuments. A seductive composition to say the least…. come and find out what it’s all about at Modenantiquaria 2023 in the Attilio Cecchetto Antiquario Gallery!

The capriccio was a great success among connoisseurs, especially the Grand Tour, for its evocative power of the lost world of antiquity which conveyed a picturesque vision of Italy. It offered artists the opportunity to work outside the canonical compositional rules and the constraints of specific commissions, thus being able to let their imagination free to create images that could seduce through the creation of fantastic architectures and countless phytoiatric and zoomorphic decorations.

Francesco Battaglioli
(Modena, 1717 circa – post 1796)
“Architectural Capriccio”
Oil on canvas, cm 158 x 82

Publication:
G. Sesiteri, Architectural capriccio in Italy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Rome, 2015, vol. I, p. 47.

The revolution of Venetian landscape painting in the Galleria Arte Cesaro. Great Modenantiquaria 2023 preview!

Guglielmo Ciardi, student of Domenico Bresolin at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, in 1868, decided to portray, unlike the other painters of the time, a neglected and bare area of Venice, the Giudecca Canal. Unaware he marks the beginning of a real revolution.

In the same year he finished the academy and went for a training course in central Italy. Exceptional opportunity to go to Florence, the capital of the new avant-garde, a reference city for the Italian artists who were rewriting the history of art at the Caffè Michelangelo, detaching themselves from the past and from the dictates of the Accademia della Crusca, painting now turns to everyday life, to worldly life, to people.

Ciardi in Florence met the critic Diego Martelli and met Telemaco Signorini and the Tuscan Macchiaioli. Ciardi’s painting is influenced by the “stain” and by a finally free and fluid painting that speaks of everyday emotions. The Barbizon school merges with the shapes and style of the Caffè Michelangelo.

Ciardi exhibited in numerous exhibitions and received the gold medal both at the Nice Exhibition and at the international one in Berlin in 1886 for his masterpiece “Messidoro”. At the Venice art exhibition of 1887, the “Messidoro” still remains the best landscape painting.

In the painting “Fishermen on the shoal” we find in the Venetian landscape, as well as in many of his other works, the presence of people, always depicted in small size at work, everyday life. People are active figures in the work and not accessory figures who give meaning to the painting. The subject of the work is not only the lagoon but rather the lagoon populated by its people where everything is in harmony with the landscape. The lagoon becomes a place of life and work.

Guglielmo Ciardi
(1842 -1917)
Fishermen on the shoal
Oil on canvas cm 53 x 86

Beauty, seduction and deception in Secol-Art, GREAT PREVIEW 2023!

Samson‘s episode is certainly one of the most compelling in the Bible. Taken from the book of Judges, the story of the herculean and fearless Samson and his superhuman strength has all the charm of the great classical mythology.
Invincible for the Philistine enemies, Samson too, like any self-respecting hero, has a single weak point: his hair from which he draws his strength.

Curiosity: Born into the tribe of Dan, he was consecrated a Nazirite: in homage to this consecration, he was obliged to wear long hair and the secret of his strength alludes to his loyalty to his vow.

In any case, tempted, seduced and deceived by the beautiful Delilah, previously bought by his enemies, Samson gives in: he reveals his secret to the woman who shaves him and delivers him to the Philistines.

The epilogue of the story is well known: a prisoner and blind, after having suffered a thousand tortures, Samson waits for his hair and his strength to grow back before sacrificing himself and destroying the temple of Dagon, thus obtaining his revenge but also his redemption.

In the splendid representation of Samson and Dalila brought to Modenantiquaria 2023 by Secol-Art Antichità by Davide Masoero and presented here in preview, the author, the great Gerolamo Cenatempo, creates a masterly oxymoronic contrast between the skin color of the two characters, thus perfectly summarizing the nature of seduction and deception.

SAMPSON AND DELILAH
GEROLAMO CENATEMPO
(? – Naples, 1744)
Oil painting on canvas
151.5 x 258.5cm.

Signed and dated Hieronimus Cenatempo F. 1713
Publications: Arte Cristiana, Year LXXXVI 788 of 1998
Memoirs of the Lunigiana Academy of Sciences, 2018

“Italian cowboys” in the Galleria d’Arte Goldoni: the heroism of the Macchiaioli shows off at Modenantiquaria 2023!

The world of the Maremma Butteri and their life as “Italian cowboys” is one of the most important and engaging strands of Fattori’s painting. For those who have never heard of them, the Butteri have an ANCIENT ITALIAN TRADITION AND MANY SECRETS…

The Maremma Butteri are shepherds on horseback typical of the Maremma region in Tuscany. They ride the Maremma horses dressed in a very particular way: corduroy trousers, chaps, velvet jacket and black hat.

They protect themselves from the rain with the “pastràno” (reminiscent of the gauchos’ poncho), a large cloak. They carry mazzarella, a stick employed for herding oxen and horses. In the past they were very numerous. Today, however, there are few who try to preserve and keep alive the tradition and secrets of this work. Between the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, the butteri crossed the inaccessible and marshy areas of the Maremma to lead oxen and horses to graze, making sure none of these got lost in the thick Mediterranean scrub. They were the only ones who knew how to move and how to survive in a land so wild as to be inhospitable. Today associations have arisen with the aim of enhancing and promoting the figure of the buttero. These associations make equestrian exhibitions to the public, also in groups, in competitions of ability, in the taming of foals and in the merca (branding).

Giovanni Fattori manages to create breathtaking works for the realism with which he describes the life and work of these indomitable shepherds called Butteri. Rebellious painter and scrupulous observer of nature, Giovanni Fattori was one of the most important artists of the artistic current of the MACCHIAIOLI, tireless and heroic men and artists, ready to restart every day despite any difficulty.

BUTTERI IN MAREMMA by GIOVANNI FATTORI, watercolor on paper applied on cardboard, 1880-85. Signed lower right “Gio Fattori” was exhibited in “I Macchiaioli”, an exhibition curated by Mario Borgiotti, from 14 July to 30 September 1946 in Florence, Palazzo Pitti Gallery of Modern Art. “I Macchiaioli” exhibition catalog (14 July – 30 September 1946, Florence, Pitti Palace Modern Art Gallery) edited by Mario Borgiotti, Florence.

One of the greatest exhibitions IN WHICH FATTORI WAS THE PROTAGONIST was that of PALAZZO ZABARELLA “MACCHIAIOLI, Masterpieces of a Rising Italy” which was held from 24 October 2020 to 18 April 2021 curated by Fernando Mazzocca and Giuliano Matteucci organized by the President of the Bano Foundation Federico Bano.

The controversial figure of the mythical King Solomon in Galleria Le Due Torri, GREAT PREVIEW 2023!

Solomon is perhaps the most controversial and ambiguous figure of the mythical kings of Israel. Third on the throne, son of David and Bathsheba, he went down in history for his great wisdom and for the period of peace and prosperity that characterized his reign.

However countless ambiguous legends have been built around his figure, which combine undisputed wisdom with occult practices such as magic, talking to animals and dominating spirits.

The marvelous painting by Giuseppe Varotti “Solomon incenses the idols” brought to Modenantiquaria 2023 by Galleria Le Due Torri and presented here in preview, masterfully represents another ambiguous aspect of the king’s life.

Accordingly, to the legend, Solomon surrounded himself with a harem full of seven hundred princesses and over three hundred concubines and that, in order not to displease them, he was induced by them to adore their equally numerous divinities, even though he had built in the heart of his capital the famous Temple of Jerusalem.

The decidedly misogynistic moral underlying the legend is the Latin one: “Mulieres apostatare faciunt sapientes”, which translates as “Women make even the wise men turn away from the right path”, even the wisest of the wise.

Solomon incenses the idols
Giuseppe Varotti
(Bologna, 1715 – Bologna, 1780)
Oil on canvas, cm 138 x 98.

THE SACRED FIRE OF THE VESTALS IN THE PAOLO ANTONACCI GALLERY in Modenantiquaria 2023. GREAT PREVIEW XXXVI Edition!

The Temple of Vesta is one of the oldest and most important sanctuaries in Rome: it housed the “sacred fire“, symbol of the community and the state and was closely connected with the HOUSE OF THE VESTALS.
Who were the Vestals… pure and superb in their immense beauty?

“First of all, they were called vestals because they were the priestesses of Vesta, a lesser-known goddess than Jupiter, Minerva or Neptune, but who according to legend was their sister, daughter of Cronus and Rhea,” explains Manzo. «The peculiarity of Vesta is that she was identified precisely with the sacred fire». The interesting thing, pace the gods of Olympus, is that the sacred fire was the most intimate cult of the Romans, perhaps of local origin. «It was the principle of life and creation, a solar element. Once it was extinguished due to carelessness or lack of devotion, Roman civilization would end. This was believed by the authorities, regardless of the compelling stories of divinities with human features to be disclosed to the people», continues the scholar. In short, the elite had an animist principle as the foundation of the religion of the state: fire understood as primary vital energy. To keep it in the best possible way, Numa Pompilius (754-673 BC), the second king of Rome, instituted the order of the vestals, made up of 4 virgins. In the writings of the Latin authors consulted by Frigerio, the foundation myth elaborated by Numa traced the first Vestal Virgin to Rhea Silvia, mother of Romulus and Remus. Servius Tullius, according to Plutarch (or Tarquinius Priscus, for Dionysius of Halicarnassus), then brought the number of priestesses of Vesta to 6.

Ippolito Caffi is an important and significant figure of Venetian artist and patriot of the nineteenth century. Born in Belluno on October 26, 1809, he died in the battle of Lissa on July 20, 1866.
He was above all a landscape painter, heir to the great school of Venetian landscape painters of the 18th century. His sure point of reference was therefore Canaletto.

The so-called ‘Vesta temple’ in Rome: Sepia watercolor on paper, 230 x 315 mm.
Signed and inscribed lower right “temple of Vesta in Rome”.
On the reverse ‘Study of perspectives with letters’.

The watercolor depicts the famous temple of Hercules known as the ‘Temple of Vesta’ with the fountain of the Tritons by Bizzaccheri on the left.

The pictorial genius of Silvestro Lega in Enrico Gallerie D’arte, GREAT PREVIEW 2023!

Enrico Gallerie d’Arte presents to Modenantiquaria 2023 a masterpiece of rare value by the illustrious Silvestro Lega, here in preview.

Lega certainly needs no introduction. Born in Modigliana in 1826, he almost immediately revealed himself as a pictorial talent or, as he himself claims: “Doodling on the walls, I was led to believe that I had a genius for painting. I got to a point where I really believed it.”

Thus, he forced his father to take him to Florence where, however, he was disappointed by traditional academic studies. However, the city played a central role in his career: it is in fact there that he met those who would later be the companions of the Macchiaioli artistic movement, establishing himself as one of its main exponents.

The idea behind the movement was to bring Italian art back to the ancient splendor of the Renaissance, unhinging it from the academic rules and restoring importance to what the Macchiaioli considered the most important component of the work: the areas (or spots) of light and shade, with the added feature of painting outdoors.

In the extraordinary work “Il pergolato“, four years before its more famous namesake kept in the Pinacoteca di Brera, the viewer can admire all the talent and the most genuine thought of Lega in a barely sketched scene of peace, light and colour.

Il pergolato
Silvestro Lega, 1864,
oil on panel, cm. 25.5 x 15.9.

The mastery of Giuseppe Vincenzino’s still lifes in Renzo Moroni Gallery, Modenantiquaria 2023!

Giuseppe Voló, also known as Vincenzino is one of the great Italian masters of still life, descended from a family with the same vocation.

Although more difficult than the rest of figurative art, still life is a genre of great charm that has deep roots since antiquity.

Just think of the legendary pictorial contest between Zeuxis and Parrhasius, an anecdote reported by Pliny the Elder to reflect on the thin line between art and deception.

In fact, it is said that Parrhasius competed with Zeuxis; while the latter presented grapes painted so well that the birds began to flutter over the picture, the latter displayed a curtain painted with such realism that Zeuxis, filled with pride at the judgment of the birds, asked that, once the curtain was removed, he could finally see the painting. After realizing his mistake, he granted him the victory with noble modesty: if he had deceived the birds, Parrhasius had deceived himself, a painter.

The vivid details and colors of Voló, as well as the typical transparent glazes that restore an almost palpitating freshness to the objects represented could have deceived the birds of Zeuxis in the same way.

In any case, the still life “excerpts”, not devoid of allegorical meanings, constitute an authentic anthology of flowers, fruit and animals, which focuses on the vertigo of illusion where the pictorial technique creates with colour, light and perspective, vivid images.

The “Still life of fruit and flowers” by Vincenzino, brought to Modenantiquaria 2023 by Moroni Renzo, is a splendid example.

GIUSEPPE VOLO’ known as VINCENZINO
(Milan 1712 – Milan? post 1716)
Still life of fruit and flowers
Oil on canvas, 60×88 cm

The ascension towards God and Beauty in Federico Andrisani Gallery, GREAT PREVIEW 2023!

One of the most evocative and profound episodes of Genesis is certainly Jacob’s dream. Son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, Jacob, during his journey to Haran, stopped and fell asleep from exhaustion. He then had an astonishing dream: near him were the feet of a ladder that reached up to heaven, the angels of God were climbing up and they descended steadily.

It was then that the Lord promised him the land on which he had lain down as the homeland of his descendants and blessed his mission. So Jacob, upon awakening, took the stone on which he had lain down, erected it in the ground as a stele and consecrated it with oil.

In “Jacob’s Dream” brought to Modenantiquaria 2023 by Federico Andrisani Gallery, Giuseppe Zola, the great 17th century painter from Brescia, chooses to represent the two different moments of the episode, synthesizing their strong symbolism in a single landscape.

On the one hand, Jacob asleep and the ladder of angels perfectly depict, in clear brushstrokes, the ascent to God and the elevation of the soul to the higher things that every believer must have.
On the other hand, the strong contrast between the dream and the materiality of stone underlines the importance of work and religious practices.

Giuseppe Zola
Brescia, 1672 – Ferrara, 1743
Jacob’s dream
Oil painting on canvas; 138×172

At the Bourbon Court with Jakob Philip Hackert in Antichità Giglio.

Extraordinary landscape painter and trusted court painter Jakob Philipp Hackert increases his fame in Italy and thanks to Ferdinand IV of Bourbon. His paintings are an important historical testimony of the ancient views of an eighteenth-century Caserta.

His painting characterized by the clear rendering of natural details and the realistic description of the painted places made him famous throughout Europe.
Here in preview for Modenantiquaria 2023 Antichità Giglio presents the pair of paintings “View of Mount Pisano with the Medici Aqueduct” and “View of Livorno from the Sanctuary of Montenero”.

Perhaps not everyone knows the story of this extraordinary, prolific painter and tireless traveller, a painter loved by nobles and royalty.
Hackert, of Prussian origins, obtained his first important assignment from Baron Von Olthof, who acted as his patron. Shortly after, the King of Sweden called him to Stockholm to make a series of commissioned paintings. From Sweden he then moves to Hamburg, Paris to arrive as far as Italy, first in Tuscany and then in Rome, where he comes into contact with the community of German painters and where he receives some of his most important commissions, both from Pope Pius VI and from the Tsarina of Russia Catherine the Great.

Thanks to this last assignment, Hackert met Ferdinand IV who commissioned him four paintings depicting “The harvest at San Leucio”, “The ferry on the Sele”, “The hunting lodge at Persano” and “The Royal Palace of Caserta” seen from the belvedere of the capuchins. The works are still present in the collection of the Royal Palace of Caserta. The king was so impressed by his works that in 1786 he hired him as his personal painter. Hackert moved to Naples with his brothers in Palazzo Cellamare, here he met Goethe, an important meeting for the growth of the painter’s notoriety. Goethe mentions him in his famous work “Journey to Italy” and dedicated a biography to him in 1811, still today the main source of information on Hackert’s life.

Hackert’s paintings are found, as well as in the Royal Palace of Caserta, in all the main museums of the capitals of Europe, in Russia and in the United States; particularly exemplary paintings of his art are exhibited in the three Goethe-Museums in Frankfurt am Main, Düsseldorf and Weimar.

JAKOB PHILIP HACKERT
(Prenzlau, Brandenburg District, Prussia, 1737 – San Pietro di Careggi, Florence, 1807)
View of Mount Pisano with the Medici Aqueduct, 1799
View of Livorno from the Sanctuary of Montenero, 1800
Oil on canvas, cm 121×170.
Signed, dated and titled lower left: “Filippo Hackert, depise 1800 / View of Livorno taken by Montenero”
Provenance: Noble Tuscan family

Sensuality and beauty of an oriental night in Liberty Art Nouveau, GREAT PREVIEW 2023!

Liberty Art Nouveau presents a great masterpiece by Luis Ridel to Modenantiquaria 2023, here in preview.

The artist, born in Vannes in 1866 and a pupil of Gustave Moreau, specialized precisely on the figure of the female nude in his eclectic production (he was a painter, sculptor and also a medalist).

“Oriental night” is a perfect synthesis of his creative talent. The female nude scene is sensual but refined, the young protagonist is almost dreamy under the veils and rose petals of the boat that follows the waves of the sea.

Impossible not to notice the influence of the master Moreau, who with the veils of his Salome enchanted Huysmans so strongly to make the Stendhal syndrome in À rebours unforgettable.

Lo stesso incanto si ritrova nel capolavoro di Ridel e nei profumi d’oriente che la sua opera riesce a far sentire allo spettatore.
The same enchantment can be found in Ridel’s masterpiece and in the oriental scents that his work manages to convey to the viewer.

“ORIENTAL NIGHT”
Louis RIDEL
(Vannes 1866/ 1937 Paris)
Oil on canvas, dimensions: 119 x 149 cm.
Signed and dated lower left: L. Ridel 1926.

THE MAGIC AND THE CHARM of VENICE in Galleria Mason-Padova.

Grubacs and “Party on the Grand Canal, View of Ca’ D’Oro in the moonlight”.

Grubacs, a follower of eighteenth-century Venetian landscape painting, illustrates in this painting, with the magical sensation of night parties, Venice celebrating the liberation of the city from the Austrian Empire in 1866 after the defeat of Sadowa. He chooses the view of the Grand Canal and works on the details of the reflections of the moonlight and lanterns in the water. This painting portrays Ca’ D’Oro, one of the most fascinating palaces in Venice, a symbol of Venetian Gothic, with Palazzo Giusti and Palazzo Fontana on its left.

Ca’ d’Oro (Golden House), a true jewel of Venetian Gothic architecture comparable only to Palazzo Ducale, is one of the most admired buildings on the Grand Canal in Venice. The reason why it is called that, perhaps is not known to most…

Ca’ d’Oro was born from the love and energy of two exceptional personalities: Marino Contarini at the beginning of the 1400s and Giorgio Franchetti, 5 centuries later. Contarini had it built and hired the two best sculptors of the time, namely Matteo Raverti (sculptor and architect also of the Milan Cathedral and Palazzo Ducale) and Giovanni Bon. But that’s not all… he called an army of artists, from Niccolò Romanello to Antonio Frison and Giacomo Passerotto and then again Giacomo da Como and Gasparino Rosso, who gave life to the most beautiful Gothic palace in Venice.

The Ca’ d’Oro construction site thus becomes a melting pot of innovations, of contaminations between the Lombard style of Raverti and the colors of Bon. Giovanni Chalier then elaborates a sumptuous pictorial decoration for the facade. And this is why the splendid building was so named: as the Venetians are used to giving nicknames to everything including churches, seeing a sea of colors and flashes reflected in the waters of the Grand Canal coming from the facade of the Palazzo, enraptured, and overwhelmed by this light almost fairy-tale they called it Ca’ d’Oro.

Now Ca’ d’Oro is the seat of the prestigious Galleria Giorgio Franchetti which houses on two floors the important collection of the Baron who in 1916 donated it to the Italian State and the building itself, after having restored it with extensive restorations, original splendour.

“Party on the Grand Canal, View of Ca’ D’Oro in the moonlight” by Carlo Grubacs
(Venice 1802-1878)
oil on canvas, c. 80×120
Signed lower right “C. Grubacs”

Stefano Maria Legnani, better known as Legnanino, is certainly not a painter who needs an introduction.

Born in Milan in 1661, he worked in the main Italian cities, and established himself with his Baroque style with light and nuanced shades and brilliant colors, clearly brighter than the dark colors of contemporary painters.

“Charity” brought to Modenantiquaria 2023 by Mattarte and presented here in preview, sums up all the magic of Legnanino’s painting in a scene of strong emotion and grace, where the purity of the gesture blends perfectly into the candor of the colors and the smiles of the figures.

Stefano Maria Legnani known as Legnanino
(Milan 1661-1713)
Charity
Oil on canvas, cm.95,5×127
Expertise Dr. Arabella Cifani

The journey beyond reality in Galleria d’Arte Frediano Farsetti with the great GIORGIO DE CHIRICO and “Still life of fruit in a village, late 1950s”.

Perhaps not everyone knows that also in German the term still life is translated into Still Leben as in English, a term that truly describes the silent life of objects and things in a truly exhaustive way, a life full of peace, without movement or sound, no noise or chaos. A talented painter manages to give life and charm to a simple jug placed on the table, to a fruit basket that to all might seem an inanimate thing… and instead through the eyes of the “Painter” it becomes almost a living being, silent but full of charm and emotion.

We cite here a part of the writing of “Isabella Far” in “Traguardi”, New Italian editions, Rome 1945. Now in G. de Chirico, Scritti/1 (1911-1945). Romanzi e Scritti critici e teorici, edited by A. Cortellessa, ed. directed by A. Bonito Oliva, Bompiani, Milan 2008, pp. 476-480 and in La Natura secondo de Chirico, exhibition catalog edited by A. Bonito Oliva, Palazzo delle Esposizioni and also reported on the Giorgio and Isa de Chirico Foundation website.

(…) The substance of things matters more than colours; it is the substance that determines the form, while the plasticity is intensified by the layer of air that envelops things. And the air that makes us guess and see with our brain the invisible side of objects for us. The air makes things emerge, softens their contours and, at the same time, intensifies their shapes. The air is everywhere; it must also be “painted on the canvas”. Painting the air is very difficult; painting the air means giving things such a plasticity, such a volume, such a force of form, that between one object and another one feels the air circulate and that the objects appear suspended, immobile, but alive in the air that moves, that moves, while things seem stopped, immobilized, as if by magic, with their borders, their promontories, their terraces, their towers, their viewpoints, their horizons. A still life contains a whole geography, a whole reduced world, as in illustrated dictionaries. A talented painter, in painting a still life, is truly painting the silent life of things created by nature or made by men. Nature and reality have no aesthetic problems, nor artistic concerns. It is the artist’s duty to give beauty to the things he/she sees and interprets (…)

The splendid painting presented here in preview at Modenantiquaria 2023 is the representation of one of the still lives created by de Chirico. Also, in this work it can be seen how this extraordinary artist, father of metaphysical painting in which art looks to deeper and more interior suggestions going beyond physical matter, is fascinated by the favourite object of all his works, Nature, which he continues to investigate throughout his artistic life.

GIORGIO DE CHIRICO
“Still life of fruit in a village, late 1950s”
Oil on canvas, cm 50×60

Joy and sweetness of maternal love in Phidias Antiques, GREAT PREVIEW 2023!

Phidias Antiques presents at Modenantiquaria 2023 a masterpiece of incomparable sweetness by Gaetano Chierici, well known for his masterful domestic and anecdotal painting.

“Maternal joys”, which has recently take part in the great exhibition “Women in art from Titian to Boldini” in Palazzo Martinengo in Brescia, is a perfect example of Chierici’s art.

A domestic, familiar scene, the sweetness overwhelms the spectator enchanted by the vivid brushstrokes and the richness of simple details, almost as if he too could experience the incomparable joy of maternal love.

Oil painting on canvas by Gaetano Chierici “Maternal joys”, published in the general catalog and participation in the exhibition “Women in art from Tiziano to Boldini” in Palazzo Martinengo in Brescia.

PRINCESS SEDUCTION in GALLO FINE ART! Great preview 2023

A young woman in her twenties, vigorous and strong… a truly expressive and princely woman that Amigoni represents in this splendid painting! The chromatic fusion, very luminous, carefully defines the tender complexion and penetrates its features, representing the profound expression of the character, which appears crystallized, almost in a suspended pose. But the sumptuous clothes and jewels, the elegant ermine make us understand that such immediacy is still princely. Who will it be…this marvelous creature….

Our painting, in addition to conveying a particular sense of intimacy and adhering to the caresses of the air, could depict the youngest face of the infanta of Spain who, around ’47-’48, would have been about eighteen years. It also has many similarities to the heiress Maria Giuseppina di Savoia. But let’s take off the identikit glasses and look at the characteristics of the modern manner covered by European portraiture, embodied here by one of the best interpreters of the Venetian area.

Amigoni is one of the great protagonists of the “idealized portrait”, characterized by the soft chromatic fusion of the flesh tones, which would have guaranteed him international fame.

Ferdinand VI of Bourbon, who reigned from 1746 at the age of twenty-three, called him to Madrid: Jacopo Amigoni, in that narrow chronological context of ten years, may have conceived this portrait, of overwhelming communicative immediacy, full of energy and seduction. The features of the young woman seem appropriate to the time, therefore at the turn of the middle of the century in which the artist would have made his lucid talent available to the Spanish court.

Jacopo Amigoni
(Naples or Venice, 1682 – Madrid, 1752)
Portrait of a noblewoman
oil on canvas, 101.5 x 82.5 cm

Circe, terrible diva, with frizzy hair and sweet singing in Arcuti Fine Art, UNPUBLISHED WORK IN GREAT PREVIEW 2023!

One of the most famous and loved episodes of the Odyssey is certainly that of Circe, lady of the island of Eea and the first sorceress to appear in known literature.
Daughter of Helios, God of the Sun, Circe is Potnia fyton (Lady of vegetation), that is, she knows the herbs that allow her to transform men, including Odysseus’ companions, into animals, and to leave her dominion over the island undisputed.

As is well known, Circe’s magic on Odysseus fails thanks to the intervention of the God Hermes who gives the hero the antidote to the spell. However her sweet song convinces the warrior to stay on the island for an entire year. It is only nostalgia (from the Greek nostos algos, the pain of returning) that really defeats Circe’s magic and convinces Ulysses to set sail.

In this perfect representation of the sorceress by Francesco Furini, UNPUBLISHED OPERA brought to Modenantiquaria 2023 by Arcuti Fine Art and presented here in preview, the painter manages, paying tribute to classical iconography, to perfectly revive Homer’s verses: Circe, terrible diva, with frizzy hair and sweet song.

Francesco Furini
(Florence 1600 – 1646)
“CIRCE”
Oil on canvas 131 x 104 cm

Unpublished work.
Critical report by Prof. Sandro Bellesi

The poetry of the beaches by Cabianca in Galleria San Barnaba, GREAT PREVIEW 2023!

Born in Veneto but Tuscan by choice of artistic belonging, Vincenzo Cabianca is certainly one of the greatest lovers and singers of the sea of the 19th century in Italy.

Influenced by the Macchiaioli whom he had met in Florence in the famous Caffè Michelangelo, Cabianca reinterpreted this artistic movement and revisited the colors and characteristic features of his favorite subject: the sea and its beaches.

The artist’s series of paintings on Liguria is famous, representing it in all its beauty but also in its daily simplicity, between waves and scenes of life.

“Women by the sea“, brought to Modenantiquaria 2023 from Galleria San Barnaba and presented here in preview, is a precious example of the most characteristic artistic production of Cabianca, that summarize both the poetry and the Macchiaioli technical drift.

Vincent CABIANCA (1827-1902)
Women by the Sea (1863)
Oil painting on canvas
30 x 80cm

Venus: power and grace of beauty in Fondantico by Tiziana Sassoli, GREAT PREVIEW 2023!

Everyone knows Venus, goddess of beauty and mother of Cupid-Love according to some currents of classical mythology.

Nonetheless, perhaps overshadowed by the most famous of her representations, Botticelli’s unforgettable Renaissance masterpiece, most forget the insidious nature of the Goddess, powerful enchantress and ruler of men and gods.

Born, following Hesiod’s Theogony, from the foam left after the fall of Uranus’ member, Venus/Aphrodite is often distinguished by her capricious and envious character, which is however capable of making people forget with her incredible beauty and grace.

In this splendid painting by GAETANO GANDOLFI brought to Modenantiquaria 2023 by Fondantico by Tiziana Sassoli and presented here in preview, the painter perfectly captures the nature of the Goddess: the graceful brushstrokes and the perfect clarity of the complexion fully express her legendary beauty, while the allegory of Love in chains suggests her darkest and most terrible side.

FUN FACT: although Cupid is represented here according to the classic iconography of the little angel, according to Hesiod, EROS is a primordial force that even precedes Uranus and Gea, which therefore has nothing to do with Venus-Aphrodite.

GAETANO GANDOLFI
(San Matteo della Decima 1734 – Bologna 1802)
Venus chains Love
1770 – 1772
Oil on canvas, 34.5×44.5 cm
Sketch for a ceiling fresco in the Gini house, Bologna.

The fascinating legend of Cyrus, king of Persia in Caiati Old Masters, GREAT PREVIEW 2023!

The fascinating legend of Cyrus, future founder of the Persian Empire, become famous thanks to the Stories of Herodotus, it is very similar to our closest Roman equivalent of Romulus and Remus.

According to the myth, the future king Cyrus was born by divine intervention from Mandane, daughter of Astyages, king of Media. After a dream of Astyages who saw his daughter delivering a vine branch, an oracle predicted that the unborn child would surpass him in power and fame.

Therefore, Astyages condemned the baby to die as soon as it was born. He was entrusted to a shepherd and his wife Spaco to be abandoned in the forest. Fortunately, the herdsman and his wife decided not to kill the baby and entrusted the fate to a dog to nurse him.

FUN FACT: according to this myth, the dog is considered a sacred animal by the Persians.

The marvelous painting by Gio Benedetto Castiglione, known as Grechetto “The finding of Cyrus suckled by a dog” brought to Modenantiquaria 2023 by Caiati Old Masters and presented here as a preview, perfectly represents all the charm and sweetness of the legend of little Cyrus.

Gio. Benedetto Castiglione, known as Grechetto
(Genoa 1609 – Mantua 1664)
The finding of Cyrus suckled by a dog
Oil on canvas, 220.5 x 223 cm
1661 – 1664 circa

Galleria Antiquaria Marletta: a great exhibition within the exhibition for Modenantiquaria 2023

Given the great success of the exhibition Sketches, drawings and first ideas. Behind the scenes of Giovanni Colacicchi‘s art, Galleria Antiquaria Marletta has decided to re-propose a small part of the project on its stand at Modenantiquaria 2023.

An extraordinary exhibition within the exhibition, which has a difficult task as its objective:
to talk about Giovanni Colacicchi, an artist born in Anagni in 1900 but naturalized as a Florentine, with whom we unequivocally find ourselves in relationship with art historians such as Berenson and Del Bravo, poets such as Montale, and important painters such as De Chirico.

We wanted, as it can also be seen from the title, to let the artist reveal himself, showing what was not meant to be seen.
The works on display are linked by the fil rouge of the preparatory phase, designed to highlight the studio and the creative process or rather the “behind the scenes” of the prolific career characterized by large public commissions but also by the artist’s intense private activity.

Here’s an example:
GIOVANNI COLACICCHI
(Anagni 1900 – Florence 1992)
Cardboard for the lunette in the former Commercial Bank in Florence
1962
charcoal on paper, 960 x 1470 mm

The magic of realism and the New Objectivity in Studiolo Fine Art.

Venice is a city of rare beauty and with a timeless charm. Its magic is even stronger if it is captured by the skilful hand of Cagnaccio di San Pietro, pseudonym of Natalino Bentivoglio Scarpa. A fascinating artist both for his biography and for his very personal search for style.

He was born in Desenzano del Garda almost in the 1900s, he lived in the hottest period of the short century, embracing and fighting it both from a historical point of view and in terms of the fervour of the artistic avant-gardes.

A young rebel, in fact, he first approached futurism, but moved away from it after a short time and, on the contrary, claimed a “return to order” and to traditional figurative formulas.

Even on a political level, he is one of the few to refuse the fascist party card from the beginning and even to actively participate in the Second World War, giving refuge to wanted partisans and anti-fascists.

After the brief futurist period, his artistic research moved towards a more realistic style, approaching Magical Realism, the New Objectivity, and the twentieth century (to which, however, he never adheres).

From all these currents he draws a very personal style that could almost be defined as a lagoon equivalent of the New Objectivity, of which his beloved Venice is often the protagonist.

“Venice, Caffè Bergamini, 1935” brought to Modenantiquaria 2023 by Studiolo Fine Art and presented here as a preview, is a splendid summary of a tormented and controversial artist who nevertheless rediscovered the magic of order and peace in his intimate search for style.

CAGNACCIO DI SAN PIETRO
Venice, Bergamini Café, 1935
Oil on panel 21×28.5 cm

Signed and dated lower right “VII-1935/Cagnaccio/di S.Pietro”

Erminia’s secret love for the handsome Tancredi in Cantore Galleria Antiquaria: GREAT PREVIEW 2023!

Jerusalem Delivered, Torquato Tasso’s first work, is a timeless masterpiece which, from the 16th century to today, has fascinated entire generations with its loves, intrigues, and legendary duels.

The pictorial transpositions of the poem are certainly not lacking, however the splendid painting by Giovanni Andrea Sirani brought by Cantore Galleria Antiquaria for the 2023 edition of Modenantiquaria 2023 and presented here in preview, focuses on one of the sweetest and least known episodes of the work.

Protagonist, the beautiful Erminia, pagan princess in secret love with the handsome crusader warrior Tancredi, who finds him, wounded and lifeless after the infamous duel with Argante, rescues him, cures him with her medical arts and confesses to him while his impossible but eternal love.

In the painting, Giovanni Andrea Sirani, favorite pupil of Guido Reni and father of the well-known painter Elisabetta Sirani, manages to capture in his brushstrokes all the poetry and sweetness of Tasso’s original verses:
«Open your eyes, Tancredi, to these extremes
obsequies that I give you with tears;
look at me I want to come together
the long road and I want to die next to you.
Look at me, don’t run away so soon:
the last gift I ask you is this.”

Giovanni Andrea Sirani
(Bologna, 1610 – 1670)
Erminia and Vafrino help Tancredi
Oil on canvas, 127 x 158 cm
Cantore Galleria Antiquaria

Giambattista Tiepolo, great Rococo Artist in DYS44 Lampronti Gallery.

The painting “Caesar contemplates the head of Pompey” by Giambattista Tiepolo that DYS44 Lampronti Gallery will present at Modenantiquaria 2023 is the model for one of the four paintings commissioned from the painter by Count Francesco Algarotti on behalf of the King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, Augustus III, and therefore destined at the Royal Collections in Dresden. The work, to which this canvas refers to, has been lost, while the other three in the series are still existing. These are the “Banquet of Antony and Cleopatra” in Melbourne, the “Triumph of Flora” in San Francisco and the “Maecenas presenting the Arts to Augustus” of Leningrad.
Through the reading of the rich correspondence maintained from 1743 to 1747 between Algarotti and Count Brühl, prime minister of the king, much information has been received on the group of paintings (Precerutti Garberi, p. 111).

In 1743 Algarotti returned to Venice from Dresden with the task of finding suitable paintings to enrich the royal collections. Among the artists still alive, he chose to commission them from the five greatest exponents of Venetian painting: Piazzetta, Pittoni, Tiepolo, Amigoni and Zuccarelli. To the first three he gave the task of executing historical paintings, while to the last he commissioned landscapes.
From the letter written by Algarotti to Brühl on 9 August 1743 we know that, initially, the theme chosen for the lost painting by Tiepolo was Timoteo, or the effects of Music, later changed to Caesar contemplating Pompey’s head. In the letter was defined also the dimensions of all the works (135×185 cm) and of the figure of their protagonist (68 cm).

According to Algarotti (Gemin-Pedrocco, p. 362, n. 299), Tiepolo had to set the story in a square in Alexandria in Egypt. This explains why in the sketch, in the background of the composition, there are paintings of the buildings of classic souvenir and an obelisk or pyramid. To make the story more truthful, Tiepolo also inserts some characters dressed in oriental style with the typical pointed shoes, the characteristic turban headdress or with the visor folded over the forehead. It is one of the first appearances of exotic figures in Tiepolo’s paintings, destined to soon become a pictorial signature for the artist. Caesar, surrounded by his soldiers, clad in Roman armour and carrying the banners of war, shrinks back almost horrified at the sight of the head of his rival Pompey.
Mercedes Precerutti Garberi notes how the style of the painting, with a Veronese imprint, is in line with Tiepolo’s activity dating back to those years (p. 115). Indeed, the type of white horse also appears in the frescoes of Villa Cordellina, in the “Crowning with Thorns” in Hamburg and in Verolanuova’s “Fall of the Manna”.
Other model consonances can be observed between the figure of Alexander, again at Cordellina, and that of Caesar.

GIAMBATTISTA TIEPOLO
(Venice, 1696 – Madrid, 1770)

Caesar contemplates Pompey’s head (1743)
Oil on canvas, 53.8 x 72.6 cm

ORIGIN
Modena, L. Giusti collection, until 1914;
Florence, Galleria Geri, 18 May 1914, lot 176;
Spain, private collection

The charm of the East at Modenantiquaria 2023 in the Mirco Cattai Gallery with the extraordinary “BELLINI”. BIG PREVIEW 2023!

In the city of Ushak and its surrounding villages (western Anatolia), already at the end of the 15th century, very fine rugs of great beauty began to be woven. They were so appreciated by the court of Istanbul, that they commissioned countless ones, especially of large dimensions.

The Mirco Cattai Gallery presents “BELLINI”, an Anatolian rug of rare beauty, also known as “DOUBLE-KEYHOLE”.

This exceptional and rare example shows an interesting double-niche pattern, harking back to 16th century “Keyhole” prayer rugs.

The double niche motif is thought to be the result of the Edict sent to Kutahya by Sultan Ahmed, in 1610. He forbade the representation of the Kaaba (the direction of the great temple of Mecca) or mihrab (the niche that indicates this direction in mosques) or of religious writings on carpets intended for countries inhabited by non-Muslims.

An interesting feature of this artifact, not common in Anatolian rugs, is the corner border, obtained from careful planning as can be seen from the meander that runs uninterrupted along the four sides.

‘Bellini’ or ‘Double-Keyhole’ Ushak rug
Western Anatolia
Mid 17th century
Dimensions: 235 x 152 cm

THE COUNTDOWN HAS BEGUN FOR MODENANTIQUARIA 2023
35TH EDITION

The countdown has begun for Modenantiquaria, the High Antiques Exhibition sponsored by the Italian Antiques Association and FIMA returning to Modenafiere from 11th to 19th of February.
Many highly prestigious Antique Galleries will showcase the best of their Collections, offering art lovers and buyers precious masterpieces, many of which are unpublished, amazing us with their refinement and quality.
Stay tuned: Coming soon the second edition of “Sculptura. Italian masterpieces from the 13th to the 20th century “.

FANTASTIC GARDENS, WHICH EVOKE WELL-BEING AND ARE A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION.

Countdown also for PETRA Exhibition, the international reference point for antiquities, decorations & design for parks, gardens, and renovations, which returns from 11th to 19th February in Modenafiere. Unique in Europe for the proposal of antique furnishing objects for gardens and outdoors PETRA returns to its ancient splendour renewed: botany and the design of green spaces the focus. main theme The Italian Garden that expresses the values of the Renaissance and sublime the dialogue between nature and art.

“ESTHER FAINTING BEFORE KING AHASUERUS”

Sebastiano Ricci’s artwork that you can admire in the Romigioli Gallery carries an all-female message: it is the story of the great strength of Esther, the most attractive woman of the Old Testament, the supreme heroine who saved her nation from destruction; with a strong capacity for judgment, a magnificent self-control and a capacity for extreme sacrifice, a woman in which charm, strength and cunning coexist.
Esther symbolizes the Woman who fights for justice and honour, characterized by great faith, courage, patriotism, prudence, and determination. She was always faithful and obedient to her uncle (or cousin) Mordecai and ready to fulfill her duty to represent the Jewish people and to obtain their salvation.
Do you know that the name Esther / Isthar is connected to the stem that in many ancient and modern languages indicates a star (in Persian “stara”, in Italian “astro”, in Greek “aster”, in English “star”)?
The planet Venus, in fact, is the brightest “star” in the sky, indicated as the “morning star” or the “evening star” par excellence (Venus is visible only before the sunrise or after the sunset). And Esther is often cited as the brightest star in the sky.
Esther in Hebrew means “I will hide”. Esther hides her true Jewish identity, to reveal it to save the Jews from the premeditated massacre of Haman, a powerful prince at the court of her husband King Ahasuerus.
The painting shows Esther’s fainting when she enters the King’s chamber to tell him about the attempt made by Haman against the Jewish race. Esther revealed her nationality to the king and revealed Haman’s plot against the Jews which was thus foiled.
Women synonymous with strength and courage, inner beauty, and great humanity.
We are waiting for you at the Romigioli Gallery to discover the other artworks by Sebastiano Ricci and stories worthy of being known.

“In 2020 the Art closed at Modenantiquaria, the last exhibition before the pandemic and reopens at Modenantiquaria, the first exhibition of the restart, a beautiful, joyful moment where the art market had the time to get a makeover and awaits the numerous art lovers with open arms!
A party, a restart, a real joy: after all, beauty will save us!
We look forward to seeing you at Modenantiquaria from March 26th to April 3rd!”

Robertaebasta presents an amazing work by Alessandro Mendini “Proust Armchair”, 1978.
Description: H. 103,5 x 103 x 88 cm.
Produced by Cappellini, Milan.
Polychromatic fabric made by machine and wood, carved and painted.
The hand-made miniseries was conceived in 1978. Cappellini took over the design in 1993 for mass production. Literature: Bangert, Italian Furniture Design, München 1988, p. 63e; Gramigna, Repertoire 1950-2000, vol. 1, Milan 2003, p. 261; Cat. 100 masterpieces, Weil am Rhein 1996, p. 192F.

The turtle is one of the oldest animals in the world with a very profound symbolic and mythological role. The turtle represents the image of the universe and the earth; wise and truth- bearer, symbol of resilience, strength, longevity, stability, patience, fertility, rightness, and protection.

In Chinese mythology Ao, a large marine turtle, carries the Earth on its back. In China it is even a sacred animal; parts of its shell were used as oracles. Due to its longevity, the animal was also considered the symbol of “long life” and due to its invulnerability, it was the symbol of the immutable order.
In India the turtle was considered the second personification (avatara) of the god Vishnu. Due to its “silent manner” it is the symbol of genuine and polite love, while its long life makes it the quintessence of vitality. In Christian philosophy of the early centuries, “the animal that lives in the mud” became the symbol of attachment to the earth. Sant’Ambrogio (approximately between 340-397) pointed out that with its shell it was possible to make a seven-stringed musical instrument, able to delight the heart.

The turtle is a much-loved animal and its representations, sculptures, statues and statuettes, are collected all over the world. From those in jade or resin to keep in your pocket to bring good luck to the beautiful jewels minted in every era, to sculptures like the one you can admire in Petra … for greenery and Art lovers BRUN FINE ART brings a Carrara marble to Petra of the eighteenth century. representing a refined and wise turtle.

FROM MARCH 26TH TO APRIL 3… just one touch to its shell… and everything will turn into harmony and luck. We await you!

Sculpture depicting a turtle
Florence XVIII century
Carrara white marble
H 50 cm, L 124 cm, P 85 cm

Pietro Cantore, Treasurer of Italian Association of Antique dealers and President of the Antique dealers of Modena and the sensual “BERENICE” by Luca Ferrari known as “Luca da Reggio”.

Berenice is fascinating and her story is fascinating too: a Cyrenaic queen of extraordinary beauty, with delicate features and long, luxuriant hair worried about the fate of her husband Ptolemy, who left for a military campaign in Syria, with a solemn vow offers the goddess Aphrodite Zephyrite her splendid hair in exchange for his safety. Ptolemy returns triumphant and Berenice keeps her promise and gives the goddess Aphrodite her long hair gathered in a braid. But the day after the offer, the braid disappears. The high priest of the temple of Serapis is accused of having removed the braid, Berenice desperate bursts into tears; Ptolemy then orders to close the gates of the city to make it sifted. No trace of the braid. The intervention of Conon of Samos, the great sage, mathematician and court astronomer and friend of Archimedes of Syracuse, is decisive. Raising his fingers towards the sky … he points out how much the Gods are so pleased by Berenice’s sacrifice that they placed her hair in the sky as a homage to her.

Do you know those three small stars that form a small V near the center of the tail of the Ursa Major’s chariot? Thanks to Conon they are called “Coma Berenices” (Coma Star Cluster)”.
Now the firmament is colored with a new love story handed down and still remembered today by astronomers and scholars.

We look forward to seeing you at Modenantiquaria from 26 March to 3 April in Cantore Galleria Antiquaria … now in a clear and starry night it will be even more satisfying to raise your eyes to the sky and look for this romantic love story in the firmament that makes you dream!

Luca Ferrari known as “Luca da Reggio”
(Reggio Emilia 1605 – Padua 1654)
Berenice
Oil on canvas, cm 64 x 84

Petra, antique, decorations & design for parks, gardens and renovations (XXVIII edition) presents the bicycles of the crafts, made between the First and Second World War.

From the tailor to the knife grinder, from the blacksmith to the shoeshine, from the milkman to the baker, from the shoemaker to the tinsmith, from the barber to that of the seller of pumpkin peanuts, peanuts, roasted chestnuts … because at Petra everything is possible … everything is an amazing surprise … a treasure never revealed.