Oil on canvas, in carved and gilded wooden frame.

The painting depicts Saint Joseph as a half-length figure, shown in three-quarter view with his gaze directed downward, holding the flowering staff that serves as his traditional iconographic attribute. The plastic rendering of the face, built through a confident use of chiaroscuro, and the treatment of the drapery in deep tones of black and reddish brown reflect the figurative culture of Ribera’s circle, developed in Naples within the Caravaggesque tradition. The pictorial quality of the work, particularly in the anatomical modelling of the hand and in the expressive intensity of the profile, places the painting within the circle of the Spanish master.

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

Oil on canvas, in gilded wood frame.

Publications: E. Lucchese, Nicola Grassi, 2019, ZeL Edizioni, p. 468, cat. C292.

Nicola Grassi ranks among the leading figures of Venetian painting in the first half of the 18th century. Formed in the circle of Sebastiano Ricci and receptive to Central European artistic currents, he developed a distinctive style marked by a soft palette and an introspective, melancholic rendering of faces.
The painting presents the subject of the Madonna and Child in an intimate, emotionally charged composition. The Virgin, draped in a blue mantle and dark red robe, holds the Child with a tender gesture, while a twilight landscape with bare trees opens in the background. The faces display the delicate quality characteristic of Grassi’s hand, with the Madonna’s gaze lowered in quiet contemplation. The pictorial execution and stylistic features point to the master’s workshop, as documented in Lucchese’s monograph.

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

Oil on canvas, unframed.

The painting depicts Cronus, Greek deity of time and the harvest, in a composition of marked expressive intensity. The figure emerges from a dark background in a manner clearly indebted to Caravaggesque tradition, with light sculpting the face of the old man with his long white beard and furrowed brow and solemn downward gaze spreading across his open hands in an eloquent gesture. In the foreground stems and ears of wheat are visible, the traditional attribute of the deity in his role as god of the harvest. The brushwork is confident and fluid; the palette is dominated by warm browns and earth tones with accents on the flesh, consistent with Italian figurative painting of the 18th century in the central-northern tradition.

Condition report: Relined canvas. Good state of conservation of the pictorial surface; signs of aging and wear are present.

Oil on canvas, in carved and gilded wooden frame.

The painting depicts the Apostle Saint Andrew carrying his cross, rendered according to the traditional iconography of the X-shaped (saltire) cross. The figure is shown from behind, head turned upward in an expression of intense spiritual devotion. The close-cropped composition is characteristic of the late Italian Baroque tradition, with fluid brushwork and an effective use of chiaroscuro. The palette — ochre, burnt orange, and dark green against a dark ground — is consistent with Italian devotional painting of the late 17th to early 18th century.

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

Oil on canvas, unframed.

The composition depicts a young woman wearing a white headscarf and a young man in plain dress, shown half-length against a dark background. The woman, holding a spool of thread, turns her face toward the viewer with a lively expression, while the young man directs his gaze toward her. The scene belongs to the typical repertoire of Todeschini, a specialist in scenes of common people caught in everyday moments, rendered with a fluid brushstroke and a palette dominated by browns and ochres.

Condition report: Lined canvas. Surface in good condition.

Oil on canvas, unframed.

The painting depicts a young man wearing a broad-brimmed hat and open shirt, shown half-length holding an earthenware jug; behind him, a young female figure emerges from the dark ground. On the foreground table lie a few dried fruits and a white cloth. The composition is closely related to the typical repertoire of Todeschini: popular figures caught in everyday moments, rendered with a fluid brushstroke and a palette dominated by browns and ochres.

Condition report: Lined canvas. Surface in good condition.

Oil on canvas, in carved and gilded wooden frame.

A fête galante scene with three figures in 18th-century dress set in an open landscape. At the centre a lady in a wide pink skirt is approached by a young man in a red coat, while a third figure observes from the left. The composition clearly reflects the pictorial language of Nicolas Lancret, one of the leading French exponents of the galant genre in the early 18th century.

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

Oil on canvas, in carved and gilded wooden frame.

The composition, set within an oval format against a dark background, depicts the Virgin in a blue mantle leaning over the Child lying on white drapery. The intimate, meditative quality of the Madonna’s face and the fluid, luminous brushwork of the Child’s flesh tones reflect the painting tradition of the Venetian-Vicentine area of the 18th century. The palette, dominated by the deep blue of the mantle and warm flesh tones, is characteristic of devotional painting from the Venetian school of the period.

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

Oil on cardboard, in wooden frame.

Signed lower right: «O. Zorlini».

Ottone Zorlini was a painter from Treviso active between Italy and Brazil during the first half of the twentieth century, trained within the Venetian tradition of plein air landscape painting. His work reflects a consistent focus on natural light and atmospheric rendering, with a loose, synthetic brushstroke close to the experiences of Lombard realism and the post-Impressionist Venetian school. The painting depicts a rural or garden corner featuring a stone arched stairway, framed by dense vegetation including cypresses and broad-leafed trees. The composition is rendered with swift, textured strokes that build solid chromatic masses through an effective interplay of light and shadow. The palette, dominated by luminous whites and deep greens, demonstrates the artist’s ability to capture the essential character of a landscape motif with directness.

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

Oil on cardboard, in wooden frame.

Signed lower left: «O. Zorlini».

Ottone Zorlini was a painter from Treviso active between Italy and Brazil during the first half of the twentieth century, trained within the Venetian tradition of plein air landscape painting. His work reflects a consistent focus on natural light and atmospheric rendering, with a loose, synthetic brushstroke close to the experiences of Lombard realism and the post-Impressionist Venetian school. The painting depicts a lakeside landscape with a low, rocky shore in the foreground, a wooded promontory to the left, and a broad expanse of water opening toward a distant mountain profile. The overcast sky, rendered with animated and layered brushstrokes, lends the scene a quietly atmospheric quality. The palette moves from earthy browns in the foreground to deep greens and muted blues in the water and distant hills.

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

Oil on canvas, in carved and gilded wooden frame.

Signed lower right: «I. Spinola. Venezia».

Ippolito Nicolò Spinola di Lerma, Genoese marquis and general of the Savoyard army, Grand Chamberlain at the court of King Carlo Alberto, cultivated painting alongside his military and court career, having received a formal training that earned him recognition as an «distinguished artist for the diligent studies carried out in a regular course at a renowned school and for the fine proofs of his genius» (Vittorio Angius, Gazzetta piemontese, 1845). His pictorial output belongs to the Romantic vedutistic tradition of the first half of the 19th century.
The painting depicts St. Mark’s Square as seen from the interior portico of the Palazzo Ducale: the large Istrian stone arches frame the open piazza, animated by figures in 19th-century dress, street vendors, and passers-by. In the background, the Torre dell’Orologio and the Procuratie facades are rendered with attention to their rhythmic arcading. The light, warm and diffuse, creates a sharp contrast between the shadows of the portico and the brightness of the square. The staffage figures recall the repertoire of Romantic Venetian vedutism, executed with a confident and fluid touch.

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

Oil on canvas, in carved and gilded wooden frame.

Signed lower right: «G. Jeanson».

The canvas depicts a gondola on the open lagoon at sunset, with a standing oarsman at the stern and four figures seated aboard. In the background, the profile of Venice is visible in the distance against a sky of dark clouds and warm light reflected on the water surface. The composition is frontally arranged, showing a good command of atmospheric values and crepuscular light on the lagoon. The painterly language belongs to the tradition of view painters active in Venice for the international market in the second half of the 19th century, with a naturalistic sensibility close to European landscape painting of the period.

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