Alina Malova

06/06/2026

Madonna of the Apocalypse with Heart-Shaped Ex-Votos. Viceroyalty of Peru, Colonial Art, 18th Century
Period: 18th century.
Technique: Oil on canvas laid down on a rigid support.
School: Viceroyalty of Peru, Spanish Colonial Art.
Dimensions: 100 × 70 cm.
Frame: Modern frame.
A large devotional painting depicting the Madonna of the Apocalypse, identifiable by her star-studded mantle and the crescent moon beneath her feet. The Virgin, crowned and richly adorned, is shown beneath an elaborate ceremonial canopy, while the Christ Child emerges from the ample mantle, following an iconographic tradition closely associated with the miraculous Marian images of the Viceroyalty of Peru.
A particularly unusual feature is the presence of the large heart-shaped ex-votos painted on either side of the figure. Together with the jewels and abundant floral ornaments, they suggest that the artist was not simply portraying the Virgin, but rather translating into painting the image of a sacred statue richly dressed and decorated with offerings from the faithful. In this respect, the work recalls the celebrated miraculous Virgins of the Lake Titicaca region, including the famous Virgen de Copacabana, although it cannot be firmly associated with any specific sanctuary.
This iconography emerged from the encounter between the Christian image of the Woman of the Apocalypse and older Andean religious traditions, in which the sacred mountain was regarded as a place of divine presence and protection. The fusion of pre-Hispanic beliefs with Marian devotion became one of the most distinctive features of Spanish Colonial art in South America.
The canvas, now mounted on a rigid support, shows wear consistent with having once been stored rolled, a condition not uncommon for devotional works intended for private worship. These traces of age do not diminish its visual impact and instead add to the historical charm of this rare example of colonial painting from the Viceroyalty of Peru.
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05/06/2026

Artist: Alessandro Allori, Atelier. Portrait of A Lady In A Black Velvet Hat.
Oil on copper.
Workshop of Alessandro Allori (1535–1607), Florentine School.
Florence, circa 1570–1580.

Fine antique carved and gilded wooden frame.

Dimensions: 17 x 13.5 cm.

This small portrait on copper depicts a noblewoman wearing a black gown, lace ruff and a distinctive cylindrical black velvet hat, characteristic of the austere Spanish fashion adopted by the Medici court during the later decades of the sixteenth century
The headdress belongs to a type frequently encountered in Florentine court portraiture of the 1570s and 1580s. Comparable examples appear in portraits of Giovanna of Austria, wife of Francesco I de’ Medici, including the full-length portrait in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, and the posthumous portrait with her son Filippo in the Uffizi, associated with Giovanni Bizzelli. A closely related bust-length portrait of the same typology was also offered by Dorotheum as a work by Giovanni Maria Butteri, another painter trained in the circle of Alessandro Allori.

The painting is closely connected to the workshop of Alessandro Allori (1535–1607), one of the leading painters of late Renaissance Florence and a central figure in Medici court portraiture.

Recent works attributed to Alessandro Allori include two small portraits on copper of almost identical size: a Portrait of Giovanna of Austria sold at Sotheby’s New York (27 January 2022, lot 3; 16.5 x 12.7 cm) and a Portrait of Eleonora di Toledo or Virginia de’ Medici sold at Sotheby’s New York (26 January 2023, lot 101; 16 x 12 cm). These comparisons reinforce the connection of the present work with the Florentine courtly portrait tradition of the late sixteenth century.
Accompanied by an expertise by Professor Federico Berti, who attributes the painting to the workshop of Alessandro Allori and dates it to the eighth decade of the sixteenth century.
Good overall condition.
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30/05/2026

Reverse glass paintings with gallant and musical scenes in the taste of Pietro Longhi
Venice (?) – 18th century.
Pair of reverse glass paintings depicting gallant and musical scenes set in elegant interiors and loggias opening onto a landscape. The figures wear costumes recalling theatre, Venetian carnival and Italian comedy of the 18th century. One scene shows a musician beside a young lady at her toilette, holding a small mirror while a maid arranges her hair. The other composition presents a serenade or musical conversation with a figure dressed in vivid red theatrical costume.
The ensemble recalls Venetian genre paintings in the taste of Pietro Longhi, with their atmosphere of music, entertainment, masquerade and refined social life. The light architectural settings, elegant poses and decorative costumes reinforce the Venetian character of the scenes.
The works are painted on the reverse side of the glass and preserved in their original dark wooden frames with gilt inner molding. Handwritten ink inventory numbers remain visible on the reverse.
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Good condition.
Dimensions with frame: approximately 28 x 22 cm each.
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29/05/2026

Portrait of a Gentleman by Jean Jacques Marie Castin, Signed and Dated 1838
Oil on canvas signed and dated “Castin 1838” lower right.
Dimensions with frame: 53 x 44.5 cm
Canvas dimensions: 40.5 x 32 cm
Louis-Philippe period portrait depicting a young bourgeois gentleman shown half-length against a dark background. The sitter wears the elegant black attire typical of the 1830s, with a large black cravat and a white waistcoat adorned with a small decorative pin.
The painting is notable for the restraint of its composition, the refined treatment of the flesh tones, and the careful attention given to the sitter’s expression. The work retains a pleasing freshness and a delicate quality of drawing characteristic of French provincial portraiture during the July Monarchy.
The painting remains on its original canvas, never relined, with its antique stretcher preserved. Good overall condition. Period frame from the first half of the 19th century in gilded wood and gesso.
Jean Jacques Marie Castin (Rossillon, Ain, 1797 – Lyon, 1869 or 1870) was a French portrait painter active during the mid-19th century. A pupil of Jean-Claude Bonnefond at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, he regularly exhibited at the French Salons between 1833 and 1856. His work is mainly devoted to bourgeois portraiture in the restrained and elegant taste of the Louis-Philippe period.
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MarieCastin #1838

28/05/2026

22/05/2026

Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist, Circle of Orazio Samacchini, Bolognese School, 16th Century.

Oil on panel.

Important Emilian panel painting from the late 16th century depicting the Holy Family with Saint Joseph and the young Saint John the Baptist. The composition is distinguished by the monumentality of the figures and by a strong plastic tension characteristic of Bolognese Mannerism in the second half of the Cinquecento.

The work reflects models close to the artistic culture of Orazio Samacchini. The vigorous construction of the figures, the compact pale flesh tones of the children, and the solemn gravity of the Virgin reveal the diffusion in Emilia of Roman and Michelangelesque influences during the mid-16th century. The Virgin, in particular, recalls the monumental language of Michelangelo’s Sibyls, reinterpreted through an Emilian sensibility.

The Virgin’s garments, painted in tones of cold pink, bluish grey and softened red, illustrate the refined chromatic taste of Emilian Mannerism. Saint Joseph, with his deeply marked features and beard animated almost as if by the wind, also belongs to this figurative vocabulary shaped by Roman artistic experiences and by painters such as Pellegrino Tibaldi and Samacchini.

At the side of Saint John the Baptist appears a small suspended metal vessel, probably intended for water, an iconographic detail alluding to baptism.

The reverse of the panel is particularly interesting, preserving its old structural elements: assembled vertical planks, ancient butterfly inserts, visible traces of manual woodworking, an old reinforcing crossbar, earlier conservation interventions and an old paper inventory label. The wrought-iron hanging device, with curved ring and triangular plate, belongs to an antique type probably dating from the 17th or 18th century.
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88 x 74 cm unframed
100 x 85 cm framed
Antique carved wooden frame
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17/05/2026

Northern Painter Active in Italy, Rocky Landscape with Boats, Men and Horses, 17th Century.

Oil on wooden panel, with cradling applied in Italy probably during the 1970s–1980s.

Fine panel from the first half of the 17th century, still within a late Mannerist spirit, where the landscape is conceived as a learned invention of steep cliffs, water openings and fantastic mountains. The composition belongs to the tradition of Flemish and Dutch painters active in Italy, within that northern landscape language which found particular success in Rome.
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55.1 × 32 cm
64.4 × 40.6 cm with frame
Good state of conservation.
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