In the past, we had thought about keeping ancient painting within the general catalogues of Fine Arts and Old Master Paintings but, starting from 2013, a selection of paintings is going to give life to the two catalogues – spring and autumn – dedicated to old masters, with which we would like to highlight the most important works for sale. The works in last April catalogue were almost 140 going from the 15th to the 18th century; the most ancient works came from a private Lombardy collection, such as the pair of tables with the Presentazione di Gesù al tempio and the Circoncisione of Piedmont school dated 15th century or the Santo Brunone ascribed to Ambrogio da Fossano called il Bergognone (1453–1523), to finish with the large table Madonna con Bambino by Gaudenzio Ferrari (1470–1546). The table by Botticelli’s school representing a Madonna con Bambino made the difference. In the catalogue the work had been ascribed by Anna Tambini to Luca di Fruosino, an artist she is currently studying to establish a corpus of his works. Proposed for 25,000-30,000 euros, it was sold for 310,000 euros.
The beautiful canvas with Sacra Famiglia ascribed to Santi di Tito (1536–1603) by Roberto Longhi in 1961, and the Sacra Famiglia con San Giovannino ascribed to Michele Tosini di Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio (1503–1577) are both dated mid-16th century. Interesting was also the canvas by Bernardo Lanino (1512–1583) Madonna con Bambino e San Giovannino (sold for 28,500 euros).
The 17th century is characterised by a beautiful Madonna con Bambino by Giovanni Battista Crespi detto il Cerano (1575–1633), an original replica of the one painted for the altar piece of the Certosa di Pavia, to arrive to the beautiful San Pietro by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri detto il Guercino (1591–1666).
The core of the Genoese painting had good results: from the series of portraits by Enrico Giovanni Vaymer (1665–1738) and Giovanni Bernardo Carbone (1616–1683) to the Natura morta con putti by Antonio Maria Vassallo (around 1620–1664/1672) that, starting from an estimate of 10,000-12,000 euros, was finally sold for 38,000 euros. Finally, it is worth mentioning one of the masterpieces by Jan Roos (1591–1638): the large canvas Orfeo incanta gli animali, sold for 99,000 euros.
The Venetian school was represented by the tondo Venere e Pace by Pietro Liberi (1614–1687) (sold for 44,000 euros), Giove ed Europa ascribed to Sebastiano Ricci (1659–1734) and three large tempera paintings by an anonymous landscape painter which were sold for 32,000 euros.
The Cost View by Francesco Fidanza had a remarkable style (sold for 23,500 euros) as well as an analogue scene with a port by the French artist Adrien Manglard (1695–1760).
Among foreign works, it is worth mentioning a market scene by Pieter Van Breadel (1629–1719) (sold for 30,000 euros), a rare coastal view by the Flemish painter Jan van Goyen (1596–1760) and a wonderful Natura morta con frutta attributed to Abraham Mignon (1640–1679) (sold for 28,500 euros).