Mattarte is a Piedmontese company, specialized in the sale of Art and Antique that starts its activity as an art shop in 1896. Antiques has always been a passion of Family and today, by Pinuccia Matta and Raffaello Lucchese, appraiser and art expert of the court of Turin, activity comes to the fourth generation.
The Gallery regularly takes part in the Modenantiquaria and in AMART in Milan.
Raffello Lucchese is “Consigliere” of the Piedmontese Association of Antique Dealers and the Gallery is registered with FIMA.
Rural Scene in a Lake Landscape
Donato Creti (Cremona 1671 – Bologna 1749)
Oil on canvas 57.5 x 76.3 cm
This painting is an important addition to the oeuvre of this great master, whose poetic and intellectual journey shaped the course of European art in the first half of the 18th century for the quality of his research and impeccable rendering.
The work is related to the series of “Astronomical Observations” commissioned in 1711 by the Bolognese Count Luigi Marsili as a gift to Pope Clement XI (pontiff from 1700 to 1721), now housed in the Vatican Museums.
The distant skyline and the luminous valley are attributed to the painter Nunzio Ferraiuoli (Nocera dei Pagani 1661 – Bologna 1735).
Expertise by Prof. Donatella Biagi Maino.
Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist
Barbara Longhi (Ravenna, September 21, 1552 – December 23, 1638)
Signed on the banner of the Cross: “(ECCE) LON NGUS\ DEI”
Oil on canvas, 40.2 x 35.1 cm.
Surrounded by an exceptional contemporary frame.
Barbara Longhi is remembered by Vasari as a marvelous painter, rightfully considered one of the famous “women painters.” This unpublished work is a true gem of a domestic intimacy painting, with the Child exceptionally turned downward (this device was also used by Lavinia Fontana). Barbara, daughter of the Mannerist painter Luca Longhi, was born in Ravenna in 1552, where she spent her entire life. She learned painting techniques in her father’s workshop, where her older brother Francesco also worked. From childhood, the young girl showed a precocious inclination for drawing and painting, so much so that her father allowed her to work alongside him, commissioning him to create small-format devotional works for the Romagna aristocracy. Barbara also quickly demonstrated a surprising independence from the works of her father and brother, in which her works reveal a greater emotional connection.
Vasari, who had met Barbara personally after spending a couple of months in Ravenna, wrote of her: “Know that in Ravenna today there is a girl of eighteen years of age, daughter of Messer Luca Longhi, a most excellent painter, who is so marvelous in this art that her father himself is beginning to marvel at her, especially in portraiture, where she will barely glance at a person who imitates her better than anyone more than moderately trained. She would not do so even if she had her before her: her name is Barbara.” And again, “she draws very well; and has begun to color something with very good grace and manner.”
The work, the subject of study, draws on references to Raphael (Madonna del Veil, Condé Museum, Chantilly) as well as Leonardesque, and its pictorial ductus appears to be of excellent quality compared to her other established works. The use of color is vivid and vibrant, and the figures now develop a monumental form, even in small formats.
Some of Barbara’s works, like this one, appear as small and powerful masterpieces, committed, sophisticated pieces that insistently look to the work of Parmigianino, positioning them as the culmination of the painter’s artistic career.
The painting can be dated between 1595 and 1605, based on comparisons with the “Madonna Adoring the Sleeping Christ” (Baltimore Museum), the “Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist” (Vienna, Dorotheum), and the “Madonna and Child Crowning a Nun” (Paris, Louvre Museum).
Referenced Bibliography:
Publications and Exhibitions:
Di femminea mano. Italian Female Painters from the 16th to the 18th Century. London, Lampronti Gallery.
Rare Louis XVI gilt-bronze clock
Pierre II Gille, called Gille l’Aîné (1723-1784).
Paris, circa 1770-1775
Height 32 cm; width 20 cm; depth 15.5 cm
Asti chest of drawers with “village” inlay
Veneered in walnut, boxwood, and rosewood, with four drawers and spinning-top legs.
Asti, circa 1680.
This rare chest of drawers tells the story of the city’s fortunes before and after the wars through its inlays. The city of Asti is depicted on the top.
Dimensions: h. 104 x 135 x 56 cm
Condition: excellent.
Austere chest of drawers
Reference: Minusieri ed Ebanisti del Piemonte. History and images of Piedmontese furniture 1636 – 1844. Daniela Piazza Editore, Roberto Antonetto, pg.101 n.166\117.
