Alina Malova

23/08/2026

22/08/2026

Giorgio Rossi (1892–1963)
Woman with Crossed Hands, circa 1930
Terracotta, unique piece
Height: 78 cm

This sculpture is the work of the Tuscan sculptor Giorgio Rossi, active between Florence and Volterra. The female figure is modeled through a deliberate simplification of form, reflecting the direction taken by Rossi in the 1930s, when he moved away from the fluid lines of Italian Art Nouveau and embraced a language closer to the Novecento (Italian 20th-century art). The solid masses and frontal stance suggest an intentional archaising approach, while the softened facial features introduce a poetic, almost childlike innocence.

The figure no longer derives from naturalistic observation but from an imagined, idealised image, where archaic echoes and modern sensibility coexist. This shift from realism to a timeless synthesis is one of Rossi’s most distinctive traits of the period. The choice of terracotta—deeply rooted in Tuscan tradition, from Etruscan heritage to early Renaissance sculpture—establishes a continuity between the past and his modern reinterpretation.

Provenance: kept within the artist’s family after his death.
Condition: very good.
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21/08/2026

Rostislas Loukine (Belgorod 1904 – Bar-sur-Aube 1988), *L’Ange déchu*, 1952.

Gouache on paper mounted on canvas.
Signed and dated lower left: R. Loukine 1952.
Framed.

A major work by Rostislas Vladimirovich Loukine (Rostislav Vladimirovich Lukin), a Russian painter associated with the artistic émigré community in France and Belgium.

The composition depicts a fallen angel, viewed head-on, with large wings spread wide. In his hands he holds a scroll bearing the inscription “Je suis la connaissance et le savoir” (“I am knowledge and wisdom”). Loukine does not depict the devil according to traditional iconography, but rather a figure that remains majestic and almost sacred, suspended between a celestial nature and his fall.

Born in Belgorod in 1904 into an ancient St. Petersburg noble family, Loukine left Russia after the Revolution and, after traveling through Constantinople and Central Europe, arrived in Paris. There he became immersed in the Russian icon tradition, studying with Nikolaj Globa and Ivan Bilibine, and participated in exhibitions organized by the Parisian society “Icône” in 1929 and 1930. He created fifteen icons for the Russian church on Rue d’Odessa in Paris and an iconostasis for a church in Toulon. In 1934, the Louvre acquired one of his icons of Saint Anthony the Roman.

In 1936, he exhibited in Brussels alongside Nicolas de Staël. He subsequently settled in Belgium and obtained Belgian citizenship in 1950, publishing and illustrating *Mythologie Russe* in 1946.

In his 1952 work *The Fallen Angel*, these diverse elements converge into a personal artistic language: the frontal composition and solemn character derived from iconography are combined with intense color, strong graphic lines, and a fantastical and symbolic imagery. The exceptional size—over two meters—gives the figure a monumental presence.

In 1978, a museum dedicated to Rostislas Loukine was inaugurated in Arsonval. The artist died in Bar-sur-Aube in 1988.
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207 × 137 cm
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#1952 ’Angedéchu

16/08/2026

Charlatan with Snakes in a Roman Square, Bamboccianti, 17th Century.

Oil on canvas.

Roman-Flemish milieu of the Bamboccianti
Rome, mid-17th century

At the centre of the square, a charlatan on horseback displays snakes to the crowd, evoking the world of mountebanks, sellers of remedies and antidotes against poisons who animated Italian cities during the 17th century.

Around him unfolds an unusually rich panorama of street life. Dogs are also present, a recurring feature in the scenes of everyday life painted by Northern European artists active in Italy. Numerous secondary episodes emerge among the architecture and at the edges of the crowd, making the painting particularly rich in details to discover.

The work was formerly attributed to the School of Jacques Callot, an understandable association given its taste for crowded scenes and the multiplicity of popular episodes. Its pictorial culture, however, finds a more convincing context in the genre painting practised in 17th-century Rome by the Bamboccianti and the Northern European artists active in the city.

The painting also has an interesting American provenance. It belonged to William D. Kolle of Brooklyn, a collector of Old Master paintings active during the first half of the 20th century, and its documented history subsequently mentions the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences – Brooklyn Museum. With the documentation currently available, it is not possible to determine the precise nature of this association — whether a loan, deposit, or presence in connection with an exhibition. It nevertheless represents a significant element in the painting’s American collecting history, before its subsequent passage into a private New York collection.

Provenance:
William D. Kolle, Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences – Brooklyn Museum
Private collection, New York

Condition: relined canvas, some abrasions.
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58.4 × 71.4 cm
With frame: 75 × 88.9 cm
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15/08/2026

Florentine School, circa 1640
Saint Agnes with the Lamb and a Crown of Flowers
Circle of Cesare Dandini (1596–1657)
Oil on canvas

The painting belongs to the Florentine school of the first half of the 17th century and can be placed within the circle of Cesare Dandini (1596–1657). The female type, with an elongated oval face, large dark eyes and a small, clearly defined mouth, as well as the slender hands and restrained gestures, find parallels in the pictorial language developed around the Florentine painter. The chromatic combination of the deep red dress and blue mantle is also characteristic of this artistic milieu.
During the 17th century, the subject of Saint Agnes enjoyed particular popularity in Florentine painting. Artists were drawn to the contrast between the saint’s youth and the steadfastness of her faith, which allowed them to combine an ideal of feminine beauty with emotional intensity and devotion. The image of the young martyr accompanied by the lamb thus became a favoured subject in Florentine Seicento painting.
According to tradition, Saint Agnes was born into a noble Roman family and suffered martyrdom around AD 304, during the persecutions under Diocletian. She is represented here with the lamb, her principal iconographic attribute: the name Agnes was traditionally associated with the Latin agnus (“lamb”), making the animal a symbol of purity and sacrifice. The crown of flowers adorning her head recalls her status as a virgin and martyr.
The paint surface shows widespread abrasion, particularly visible in the flesh tones, which has diminished some of the original nuances of the modelling.
The composition, the drawing of the figures and the principal colour relationships nevertheless remain clearly legible.
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67 × 56 cm / 26.4 × 22 in
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14/08/2026

Portrait of a Young Woman in a Hooded Cape, “Marta S[?]. Pieterburg”, circa 1840.
Watercolour on paper
Circa 1835–1845

At lower right is the handwritten inscription “Marta S[?]. Pieterburg”. The reading Pieterburg, a form historically used for St Petersburg, suggests a possible connection between the portrait and a Russian milieu.

The young woman wears a voluminous light-coloured hooded cape, edged in pink and finished with a tassel. Hooded capes, mantles and pelerines were fashionable during the first half of the 19th century, particularly as garments for walking and travelling. Both practical and elegant, they were worn during stays at climatic resorts and fashionable destinations frequented by European high society, such as Hyères and Nice, as well as Italian resorts.

Watercolour itself was particularly suited to this culture of travel: light and easily transportable, it allowed portraits, places and encounters to be preserved in family albums.

The hairstyle and costume allow the work to be dated circa 1840, most probably between 1835 and 1845. The inscription does not at present allow the sitter to be identified, but provides a significant avenue for further research into a possible connection with St Petersburg and Russian society.
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Condition: good, with slight sunning to the paper.
Width: ca. 18 cm Height: ca22 cm
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12/08/2026

08/08/2026

Jean-Baptiste Mallet (1759–1835), attributed – 17th-Century Interior with Mother, Children and Lutenist
Attributed to Jean-Baptiste Mallet (Grasse, 1759 – Paris, 1835).
Oil on panel.

The composition depicts a young mother with her two children, while a maid enters the room carrying a tray. In the background stands a young lutenist. Although painted in the early decades of the 19th century, the scene is deliberately set in the 17th century, as revealed by the costumes, the monumental late-Mannerist fireplace, the furnishings and the decorative details. This refined historical evocation is fully in keeping with the Troubadour taste that characterized an important strand of French painting of the period.
Born in Grasse in 1759, Jean-Baptiste Mallet was one of the leading exponents of French genre painting between the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His works, often set in an idealized past, combine scenes of everyday life with a learned historical reconstruction. The choice of oil on panel, a support that had become less common by this period, also deliberately recalls the pictorial tradition of earlier centuries. Meaningful comparisons can be made with works preserved at the Bowes Museum and with the paintings exhibited in the Jean-Baptiste Mallet exhibition at the Musée Fragonard in Grasse.
The attribution is based on the close stylistic and iconographic affinities with the artist’s documented oeuvre.
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Good condition. Presented in its original gilt wooden frame.
Panel dimensions: 36 × 24 cm.
Framed dimensions: 47 × 36.5 cm.
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07/08/2026

Charles X Clock in Alabaster and Gilt Bronze with Rose Garland Dial, circa 1825, Working.

Dimensions: 48 × 26 cm (18.9 × 10.2 in).

French Charles X mantel clock of the so-called borne form, inspired by elements of Classical architecture. The case is crafted in alabaster and gilt bronze and surmounted by a decorative urn. The white enamel dial with Roman numerals is enhanced by a finely cast gilt bronze mount in the form of a garland of roses. The decoration is further enriched with scrolling foliage, cornucopias, palmettes and acanthus friezes.
The original French movement is of the two-train type, one train driving the timekeeping and the other striking the hours and half-hours on a bell. The clock is fitted with a silk-thread suspension pendulum (mouvement à fil), a refined system widely used on French Empire and Charles X clocks.
The movement also retains its traditional count wheel striking system, characteristic of French clocks from the first quarter of the 19th century, before the widespread adoption of the rack striking mechanism. This feature is fully consistent with a dating around 1825.
The original bell is present, and the striking hammer is complete.
The clock is in working order and comes complete with its original winding key and pendulum. As with all early 19th-century mechanical pendulum clocks, its accuracy should not be compared with that of modern timepieces. A slight deviation of a few minutes is entirely normal and is characteristic of this type of mechanism.
Good overall condition, with minor signs of age, including a crack to the alabaster base and a hairline crack to the rear inspection glass.
We prefer collection in Florence. Shipping can nevertheless be arranged by prior agreement.

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05/08/2026

Today is the birthday of Alina Malova, the founder and driving force behind the Antichita di Alina, antique shop in the heart
of Florence.