Oil on panel, in a wooden frame.

Attribution confirmed orally by Prof. Andrea De Marchi.

Vincenzo di Antonio Frediani is one of the most representative Lucchese painters of the late 15th century, active in a culturally lively environment shaped by the presence of itinerant masters and by constant dialogue with Florentine and Pisan painting. His training reflects a provincial yet by no means isolated context: Lucca, a significant mercantile and religious centre, attracted important commissions and offered the painter direct exposure to the most current figurative tendencies of the time. Frediani is distinguished by a solid command of draughtsmanship, a restrained palette, and a volumetric treatment of figures that reveals the influence of the Tuscan tradition of the 15th century, with accents recalling the painting of Filippino Lippi and, more broadly, the Ghirlandaiesque milieu. The panel depicts the beheading of a female saint, a subject recurrent in Lucchese and Tuscan devotional painting of the period. The horizontal format, characteristic of predella panels, organises the figures within an open setting with narrative balance. The plastic treatment of forms, the measured handling of light, and the quality of the drapery are consistent with Frediani’s mature language, placing the work within the most significant core of his production.

Condition report: Panel with cradle. Good state of conservation of the paint surface, with minor localised abrasions and old retouching.

Oil on canvas, in carved and gilded wooden frame.

Expert opinions: Prof. Sandro Bellesi, Sesto Fiorentino (critical essay enclosed).

Pier Dandini is one of the most significant figures in late Baroque Florentine painting. Trained in the workshop of his uncle Vincenzo and further developed through stays in Venice and Rome, he became from the mid-1670s one of the most sought-after painters among the Medici and the Florentine patrician class, active in the decoration of villas, palaces and churches. His style is distinguished by compositional elegance, a refined chromatic palette and a lively brushwork, drawing on the lessons of Ciro Ferri and the experimentation of Livio Mehus, making him a forerunner of Florentine rocaille painting.
The painting depicts the Old Testament episode of Esther’s intercession before the Persian king Ahasuerus, drawn from the Book of Esther. The queen is shown at the moment she faints in the arms of her handmaidens in the presence of the sovereign, rendered with the chromatic delicacy and compositional grace characteristic of the artist’s mature period. The figure of Ahasuerus, clad in armour and a crimson mantle, occupies the right side of the scene with an open gesture toward the queen, while a group of courtiers and figures in shadow animate the architectural background. The precious colouring and enamel-like effects in the draperies connect the work, by comparison with documented paintings such as the Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena in Siena Cathedral (1679) and the Assumption of the Virgin and Saints in Santa Verdiana in Florence (1680), to a dating towards the late 1670s and early 1680s. The work, previously unpublished, constitutes a new addition to Pier Dandini’s autograph catalogue, as attested by the expert opinion of Prof. Sandro Bellesi.

Condition report: Original canvas. Good state of conservation of the painted surface, with some repairs and joins.

Oil on canvas, in carved and gilded wooden frame.

Provenance: Sormani Collection, Contra (label on the reverse).

Alessandro Magnasco, known as il Lissandrino, is a central figure in late Baroque genre painting in Italy. Trained in Milan in the workshop of Filippo Abbiati, he developed an immediately recognizable style: rapid and nervous brushwork, elongated and restless figures, dark atmospheres enlivened by flashes of light. His production of tavern scenes, soldiers, and popular figures remained influential throughout the early eighteenth century. The canvas depicts the interior of a tavern with brick arches, animated by a group of figures engaged in a card game around a barrel. The composition unfolds on several levels: the players at the center, seated or reclining figures at the margins, a burning fire in the background. The loose brushwork, the dense colours applied in quick strokes, and the lively character of the figures are consistent with Magnasco, as transmitted by the label on the reverse bearing the attribution of the Sormani Collection, Contra, or his immediate workshop.

Condition report: Relined canvas. Good state of conservation of the pictorial surface.

Oil on canvas, in a carved and gilded wooden frame.

Provenance: Sormani Collection, Contra (label on the reverse).

Alessandro Magnasco, known as “il Lissandrino,” is a central figure in Italian late Baroque genre painting. Trained in Milan in the workshop of Filippo Abbiati, he developed an immediately recognizable style: rapid, energetic brushstrokes; elongated, agitated figures; and somber atmospheres enlivened by flashes of light. His depictions of tavern scenes, soldiers, and ordinary people remained influential throughout the early 18th century. The canvas depicts the interior of a tavern with brick arches and arched windows, animated by numerous figures arranged across multiple planes. In the foreground are a seated woman and figures lying down or crouching; in the center is a vendor leaning against a barrel—on which a magpie is perched—surrounded by figures haggling or making requests; in the background are groups engaged in conversation or drinking. Utensils, jugs, and objects hanging on the walls complete the scene. The loose brushwork, the dense colors applied in rapid strokes, and the lively character of the brushstrokes are reminiscent of Magnasco, as indicated by the label on the reverse bearing the attribution from the Sormani Collection, Contra, or to his close workshop.

Condition report: Lined canvas. The painted surface is in good condition.

Tempera on paper, in ebonized and painted wood frame.

View of the Gulf of Naples with Vesuvius erupting in the background, the city stretching along the coastline and, in the foreground, sailing boats on the sea and figures of local people on a rocky promontory. The composition reflects the taste of Neapolitan vedutismo produced for the Grand Tour market, with an atmospheric rendering dominated by warm sunset tones, from pink to ochre yellow, enveloping the entire scene. The precise execution and attention to architectural and landscape detail are consistent with the tradition of vedutists active in Naples between the late 18th and early decades of the 19th century.

Condition report: Good state of conservation of the paper support and pictorial surface.

Oil on canvas, in carved and gilded wooden frame.

The scene depicts a moment of everyday life on the Venetian lagoon: a boat with several figures occupies the centre of the composition, with a young diver standing on the bow, poised to jump. In the background, sailing boats animate a lagoon beneath a bright, veiled sky. The loose brushwork and the palette, dominated by cool tones of water and sky, recall the lagoon landscape tradition of late 19th-century Venice, in the orbit of Guglielmo Ciardi and Pietro Fragiacomo.

Condition report: Relined canvas. Good condition of the pictorial surface.

Oil on canvas, in a gilt wood frame.

The work is indistinctly signed and dated lower right: «1859».

The painting depicts a wooded river landscape with two figures on the bank in the foreground: a seated fisherman and a standing man delivering a message. The scene is set in an English summer forest, with tall trees dominating the composition and casting deep shadows over the riverbank. In the far left background, a carriage is faintly visible along a path, introducing a narrative dimension to the scene. The sky, brightened on the left, counterbalances the dense vegetation on the right, with birds barely sketched against the blue. The palette, articulated in deep greens and luminous ochres, the rendering of foliage, and the presence of small figures within a dominant natural setting connect the work to the British landscape painting tradition of the mid-nineteenth century, in the lineage of the Norwich School and the Victorian landscapists active during the 1850s and 1860s.

Condition report: Original canvas. Good state of conservation of the pictorial surface.

Oil on canvas, in a gilt wood and gesso frame.

The work bears a signature lower right, difficult to read with certainty, attributable to a Hungarian painter active between the late 19th and early 20th century.

A rural landscape at sunset in the tradition of Central European naturalism, with stylistic affinities to the Munich School of landscape painting. The composition is structured around a dirt path cutting diagonally across the picture plane, drawing the eye toward open plains in the background. A shepherd leads a large flock of sheep along the track, framed on the right by a group of slender birch trees with pale trunks. The sky dominates the upper portion of the canvas and glows with warm orange and golden tones, transitioning to cooler hues near the horizon where distant hills emerge through a softly veiled atmosphere. The treatment of the sheep’s fleece, rendered with a brisk touch, and the chromatic quality of the sunset reveal confident technical handling and a sensitivity to plein air light.

Condition report: Original canvas. The painted surface is in good condition.

Oil on canvas, in a gilded wooden frame.

Signed lower left: “Percy.”

Sidney Richard Percy, born Williams, was one of the leading British landscape painters of the 19th century and a member of a family of artists active within the English Romantic landscape school. His work focuses on depicting the English countryside and rivers, with particular attention to the atmospheric rendering of light and vegetation. The painting depicts a river bend surrounded by summer greenery. In the foreground, on the right bank, a rock protrudes from among the grass and flowering bushes, next to a tall tree with dense foliage. The river’s water extends toward the background, where the opposite bank fades into a wooded strip. The sky, streaked with white clouds, is enlivened by a few swallows in flight. The brushwork is loose in the vegetation and more meticulous in rendering the water’s reflections, in keeping with the artist’s usual style.

Condition report: Original canvas. The painted surface is in good condition.

Oil on canvas, unframed.

Signed and dated lower left: “W. V. Tippett 1901”.

William Vivian Tippett was a British painter active in the second half of the nineteenth century, known for animal subjects and rural landscapes in the Victorian tradition. The painting depicts a group of mixed-breed cattle crossing a shallow river in an autumnal landscape; in the background, misty hills and a mountain profile open up, while trees in ochre and copper tones animate the left bank. The brushwork is fluid in the rendering of the water’s reflections and the cloudy sky, and more precise in the definition of the animals in the foreground. The subject belongs to the tradition of British animal painting of the late nineteenth century.

Condition report: Original canvas. Good state of conservation of the pictorial surface, with signs of aging and wear.

Oil on canvas, unframed.

Signed lower right: «W. Richards».

A Scottish Highland landscape depicting a group of Highland cattle watering and crossing a stream in the foreground. In the background, a mountain range is bathed in the warm reddish light of sunset. The careful rendering of the animals’ coats and the reflections on the water demonstrates confident technical skill, in keeping with the British tradition of animalier and landscape painting with Scottish subjects, widely practised in the second half of the nineteenth century in the wake of the Highland Romanticism popularised by Landseer.

Condition report: Original canvas. Good condition of the painted surface, with signs of ageing and wear.

Oil on canvas, unframed.

Signed lower left: indistinct signature.

The painting depicts a group of Highland cattle watering at the edge of a mountain lake, set in what appears to be the Scottish Highlands. In the foreground, the animals are rendered with naturalistic attention to their characteristic shaggy, reddish-brown coats; the background features a misty mountain range with luminous skies and calm water reflections. The composition belongs to the tradition of Victorian Scottish landscape and animal painting, recalling the subject matter popularised by Edwin Landseer and his followers.

Condition report: Original canvas. Good state of conservation of the pictorial surface, with signs of age and wear.