17 Works, January 2nd. is Piero di Cosimo's day, his art, illustrated with footnotes #259

Cosimo Rosselli  (1439–1507) 

Descent from Mount Sinai, circa 1480

Fresco

Height: 350 cm (11.4 ft) Width: 572 cm (18.7 ft)

Sistine Chapel

In the upper part is Moses kneeling on Mount Sinai, with a sleeping Joshua nearby: he receives the Tables of the Law from Yahweh, who appears in a luminescent cloud, surrounded by angels. In the foreground, on the left, Moses brings the Tables to the Israelites. In the background is camp of tents, with the altar of the golden calf in the middle; the Israelites, spurred by Aaron, are adoring it: the position of some of them, painted from behind, was usually used for negative characters, such as Judas Iscariot in the Last Supper. Once seeing that, Moses, in the center, gets angry and breaks the Tables on the ground. The right background depicts the punishment of the idolatrous and the receiving of the new Tables. Joshua, in the blue and yellow, appears with Moses. More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo (2 January 1462[1] – 12 April 1522), also known as Piero di Lorenzo, was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. He is most famous for the mythological and allegorical subjects he painted in the late Quattrocento; he is said to have abandoned these to return to religious subjects under the influence of Savonarola, the preacher who exercised a huge sway in Florence in the 1490s, and had a similar effect on Botticelli. The High Renaissance style of the new century had little influence on him, and he retained the straightforward realism of his figures, which combines with an often whimsical treatment of his subjects to create the distinctive mood of his works.

Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521

Battle of Lapiths and Centaurs, c. 1490

Panel, 71 x 260 cm

National Gallery, London

The battle depicted takes place between the Lapiths and the Centaurs at the wedding feast of Pirithous. Pirithous, king of the Lapith, had long clashed with the neighboring Centaurs. To mark his good intentions Pirithous invited the Centaurs to his wedding to Hippodamia. Some of the Centaurs, over-imbibed at the event, and when the bride was presented to greet the guests, she so aroused the intoxicated centaur Eurytion that he leapt up and attempted to carry her away. This led not only to an immediate clash, but to a year-long war, before the defeated Centaurs were expelled from Thessaly to the northwest. More on  the Battle of the Centaurs against the Lapiths

Vasari has many stories of his eccentricity, and the mythological subjects have an individual and quirky fascination. He trained under Cosimo Rosselli, whose daughter he married, and assisted him in his Sistine Chapel frescos.

Piero di Cosimo  (1462–1522)

Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci, c. 1490

Tempera on panel

Height: 570 mm (22.44 in); Width: 420 mm (16.53 in)

Condé Museum

This Florentine painting from the Quattrocento is one of the most famous masterpieces of the Condé museum. Painted around 1490, the portrait known as Simonetta Vespucci has never ceased to intrigue art historians. The young and beautiful mistress of Giuliano de Medici, "the idol of Florence", who posed for Botticelli, died of consumption at the age of twenty-three in 1476 and her lover would have had this portrait painted in memory of her. But it is not certain that we are in the presence of the portrait of Simonetta, because the inscription which names her at the bottom of the painting is perhaps later. Moreover, if this portrait represents Simonetta well, it is then a posthumous portrait, because Piero di Cosimo was only fifteen years old when he died.

It could rather be the Cleopatra with the serpent around her neck. However, the iconography does not correspond to Cleopatra, represented with the serpent biting her breast.

The depiction of a woman with a naked bust is unusual for a 15th century portrait. It can also be an ideal portrait, a Neoplatonic allegory of death, symbolized by the serpent which bites its tail, which leads to beauty. The funeral interpretation of the painting is reinforced by the black clouds and the dead tree which appear in front of Simonetta, on the left, while on the right, the trees have leaves and the sky is blue. More on this painting

The son of a goldsmith, Lorenzo di Piero, Piero was born in Florence and apprenticed under the artist Cosimo Rosseli, from whom he derived his popular name and whom he assisted in the painting of the Sistine Chapel in 1481.

Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521

The Finding of Vulcan on Lemnos, c. 1495-1505

Oil and tempera on canvas

Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford

Vulcan (Greek Hephaestus) in Greek and Roman mythology was the god of fire, and the blacksmith who forged the weapons of many gods and heroes. He was the educator of the primitive man, and taught him the proper use of fire. He was the son of Jupiter and Juno. He was married to Venus who made a cuckold of him. He was crippled as a result of being thrown down to earth from Olympus by Jupiter in a fit of anger.

When Vulcan was thrown down from Olympus, he landed on the island of Lemnos in the Aegean where he was looked after by the inhabitants. He is shown being helped to his feet by one of a band of nymphs. More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo  (1462–1522)

Vulcan and Aeolus, circa 1490

 (or The Return of New Life to Lemnos)

Tempera and oil on canvas

155.5 × 166.5 cm (61.2 × 65.5 in)

National Gallery of Canada

Inspired by Classical authors, Piero imagined the dawn of civilization, when humanity lived in harmony with Nature. The horse has been tamed, metal-working invented, and men build a primitive house from rough tree trunks. It was painted at a time of fascination with the exotic: the figures’ partial nudity, and the giraffe and camel would have suggested other lands and cultures to Piero’s contemporaries. While the setting is fully conceived, the exact subject remains uncertain, but likely shows the story of Vulcan, the blacksmith god, who taught man craft. Frame: carved wood, painted and partly gilded. Italy, late 16th – early 17th century. More on this painting

For ancient Greeks, the island of Lemnos sacred to Hephaestus, god of metallurgy, who—as he tells himself in Iliad I.590ff—fell on Lemnos when Zeus hurled him headlong out of Olympus. There, he was cared for by the Sinties, according to Iliad, or by Thetis, and there with a Thracian nymph Cabiro (a daughter of Proteus) he fathered a tribe called the Kaberoi. Sacred initiatory rites dedicated to them were performed in the island. Its ancient capital was named Hephaistia in the god's honour. More on Lemnos

In the first phase of his career, Piero was influenced by the Netherlandish naturalism of Hugo van der Goes, whose Portinari Triptych (now at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence) helped to lead the whole of Florentine painting into new channels. From him Cosimo acquired the love of landscape and the intimate knowledge of the growth of flowers and of animal life. The manner of Hugo van der Goes is especially apparent in the Adoration of the Shepherds, at the Berlin Museum.

Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521

Venus, Mars, and Cupid, c. 1505

Oil on panel

72 x 182 cms | 28 1/4 x 71 1/2 ins

Staatliche Museen, Berlin | Germany

Despite the different datings they have been given the two panels (Death of Procris (See below) , and Venus and Mars) may have formed part of a cycle illustrating themes from ancient mythology. The long shape of the panels suggest that they may have decorated a cassone chest.

Another aspect of Piero's artistic personality is his ability to infuse his subjects with wit and fantasy. The subject matter is sensual in nature, with Cupid nestling beside Venus' breast near a long-eared rabbit, a symbol of sexual excess. The black and white birds down below seem to symbolize the lovers, Venus and an exhausted Mars asleep on the ground.

This panel may have been painted as part of a suite of marital furniture, such as a bedstead, hope chest, or frieze. More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521

The Death of Procris

Oil on panel

65 x 183 cms | 25 1/2 x 72 ins

National Gallery, London | United Kingdom

A nymph lies on a patch of grass in the foreground, blood streaming from wounds on her throat and hand. A satyr, half man and half goat, kneels next to her, mourning her death. A dog sits at her feet, balancing the stooping figure of the satyr and seemingly mourning as well. More dogs appear at the lakeside in the background.

It has been suggested that this painting depicts an episode from the Metamorphoses, an influential poem by the ancient Roman writer Ovid. If this is the case, then the beautiful nymph would be Procris, who was accidentally killed by her husband Cephalus. A fifteenth-century adaptation of the Metamorphoses added the satyr, which is not mentioned by Ovid.

The painting’s dimensions suggest that it was part of furniture or inserted into wooden panelling. Piero di Cosimo specialised in the production of such paintings, known as spalliere. More on this painting

Cephalus was married to Procris, a daughter of Erechtheus, an ancient founding-figure of Athens. One day the goddess of dawn, Eos, kidnapped Cephalus when he was hunting. The resistant Cephalus and Eos became lovers, and she bore him a son. However, Cephalus always pined for Procris, causing a disgruntled Eos to return him to her, making disparaging remarks about his wife's fidelity. 

Once reunited with Procris after an interval of eight years, Cephalus tested her by returning from the hunt in disguise, and managing to seduce her. In shame Procris fled to the forest, to hunt. In returning and reconciling, Procris brought two magical gifts, an inerrant javelin that never missed its mark, and a hunting hound, Laelaps that always caught its prey. The hound met its end chasing a fox (the Teumessian vixen) which could not be caught; both fox and the hound were turned into stone. But the javelin continued to be used by Cephalus, who was an avid hunter.

Procris then conceived doubts about her husband, who left his bride at the bridal chamber and climbed to a mountaintop and sang a hymn invoking Nephele, "cloud". Procris became convinced that he was serenading a lover. She climbed to where he was to spy on him. Cephalus, hearing a stirring in the brush and thinking the noise came from an animal, threw the never-erring javelin in the direction of the sound – and Procris was impaled. As she lay dying in his arms, she told him "On our wedding vows, please never marry Eos". Cephalus was distraught at the death of his beloved Procris, and went into exile. More on Cephalus and Procris

Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521

Perseus Frees Andromeda, c. 1513

Tempera grassa on wood

70 x 120 cm

Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

In the centre of the composition, Perseus is dealing with the sea monster that is about to attack Andromeda, daughter of the King of Ethiopia, offered as a sacrifice to placate the monster's ire. The monster had been unleashed by Poseidon, angry with the boastful Cassiopeia, Andromeda's mother. Perseus is shown twice more in the painting, when he sees the dragon and the young sacrificial victim, while flying through the skies on his winged sandals, when he celebrates the liberation of Andromeda, who will become his bride. In the composition, the jubilation of Andromeda's father and the laughing crowds, shown on the right, contrasts with the desperation of the family at the destiny of the young princess in the scene on thee left.

The subject of the painting, derived from the Ovid's Metamorphoses illustrates the story of a famous couple from Greek mythology and seems right for the destination of the panel, painted as part of the furnishings for a nuptial room, most likely that of Filippo Strozzi the younger and Clarice de' Medici in Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, on which cabinet maker Baccio d'Agnolo was working in 1510-1511. The artist, Piero di Cosimo, an eccentric, imaginative Florentine painter, working above all to make the narration clean and the improbably musical instruments or eastern costumes of the subjects credible, rather than evoking the drama of the story, also diluted by the reassuring view of the sea in which the enormous monster is swimming, almost bathing in a pond. More on this painting

He journeyed to Rome in 1482 with his master, Rosselli. He proved himself a true child of the Renaissance by depicting subjects of Classical mythology in such pictures as Venus, Mars, and Cupid, The Death of Procris (See above), the Perseus and Andromeda series (See above), at the Uffizi, and many others. Inspired to the Vitruvius' account of the evolution of man, Piero's mythical compositions show the bizarre presence of hybrid forms of men and animals, or the man learning to use fire and tools. The multitudes of nudes in these works shows the influence of Luca Signorelli on Piero's art.

Piero di Cosimo

The Visitation with Saint Nicholas and Saint Anthony Abbot, c. 1489/1490

Oil on panel

184.2 x 188.6 cm (72 1/2 x 74 1/4 in.)

The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

The central scene of the eccentric Florentine artist Piero di Cosimo's Visitation depicts the meeting of the Virgin Mary and the elderly Saint Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. Saint Nicholas on the left, identified by his attribute of three gold balls alluding to his charity towards the daughters of an impoverished nobleman, and Saint Anthony Abbot on the right, identified by his cane, bell and ever-present pig, sit in the foreground as studious witnesses to the event. Additional scenes relating to the birth of Christ are depicted in the background: the Annunciation painted on a distant church wall, the Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds on the left, and the Massacre of the Innocents in the middle ground. More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo

The Nativity with the Infant Saint John, c. 1495/1505

Oil on canvas

(diameter): 145.7 cm (57 3/8 in.)

The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

In this Nativity, among the largest of Piero’s roundels, was likely intended for devotional use in a private palace or in the more public setting of a local confraternity or guildhall. Mary kneels in adoration of the infant Christ, who rests on a blue mantle, his head supported by a pillow of wheat that evokes the Eucharist. Also present to venerate the incarnate Jesus are an angel and the young John the Baptist, who clutches a reed cross and regards the Christ child with touching solemnity.

Piero’s narrative vision encompasses details sublime and mundane, from the symbolic rose and bud, rocks, and dove beside Christ to the half-ruined stable in the background with its niche of kitchen utensils. Jesus’s father, Joseph, descends the building’s wooden stairs in the cautious manner of an aged man. He is attended by angels bearing flowering branches to celebrate the Child’s birth. In the distance at left, the three Magi traverse a serene landscape whose rolling contours perfectly complement the tondo’s shape. More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo (Italian, Florence 1462–1522 Florence)

The Young Saint John the Baptist, ca. 1480–82

Tempera and oil on wood

11 1/2 x 9 1/4 in. (29.2 x 23.5 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Saint John the Baptist is one of the patron saints of Florence, where representations of him as a youth enjoyed a special popularity in the fifteenth century. In its format and profile depiction of the saint, this picture resembles contemporary marble reliefs, but the soft modeling reflects Piero's awareness of Netherlandish painting. More on this painting

John the Baptist (sometimes called John in the Wilderness; also referred to as the Angel of the Desert) was the subject of at least eight paintings by the Italian Baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610).

 

The story of John the Baptist is told in the Gospels. John was the cousin of Jesus, and his calling was to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. He lived in the wilderness of Judea between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, "his raiment of camel's hair, and a leather girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey." He baptised Jesus in the Jordan.

According to the Bible, King Herod's daughter Salome requested Saint John the Baptist's beheading. She was prompted by her mother, Herodias, who sought revenge, because the prophet had condemned her incestuous marriage to Herod. More John the Baptist

Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521

Madonna and Child Enthroned with Sts. Peter, John the Baptist, Dominic, and Nicholas of Bari

Tempera and oil on panel

69 3/4 in. x 47 in. x 5 in. (177.2 x 119.4 x 12.7 cm)

Saint Louis Art Museum

In a lifelike rendering, this large panel portrays a sacra conversazione (holy conversation) where saints surround the Madonna and Child in a unified pictorial space. Piero di Cosimo’s approach is far removed from the compartmentalized divisions in Lorenzo di Nicolo’s altarpiece elsewhere in this gallery. Here, Saint Peter presents the kneeling Saint Dominic (left) while Saint John the Baptist announces Christ’s ministry, and Saint Nicholas kneels in devotion (right). The three smaller panels, called a predella, depict scenes from the lives of Saints Dominic, John, and Nicholas. The Pugliese coat of arms adorns the frame, identifying the Florentine family who commissioned the work for its private chapel. More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521

St Mary Magdalene, c. 1490-95

Tempera on panel

72 x 53 cm

Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome

St Mary Magdalene is identified by her profile and the halo, her long hair and jar of ointment. The jar alludes to the visit of the Magdalene and the pious women to the sepulcher on Easter morning. Having reached the place where the body of Jesus would be embalmed with perfumed oils, they found the sepulcher empty and were the first to bear witness to the Resurrection. The long hair with which the Magdalene is generally depicted actually derives from an erroneous interpretation of the Gospel, arising from a confusion between the Magdalene with the nameless prostitute who, repenting of her sins, shed tears on Jesus's feet and dried them with her own hair.

Piero di Cosimo's painting, however, includes details that go beyond the traditional depiction of the saint, drawing on the artist's own time: the style of her dress, the open book and the lady's pose, like the architecture framing her, draw directly on the portraiture of the 1400s. In fact, it cannot be excluded that the painting may actually have been commissioned by or for a lady named Maddalena, who wished to be portrayed as the saint whose name she bore.

The painting is notable for its extremely refined execution, particularly striking in the pictorial surface and definition of the details. In these ways, Piero di Cosimo reveals his profound understanding and appreciation of the formal values of Flemish painting. More on this painting

During his lifetime, Piero acquired a reputation for eccentricity—a reputation enhanced and exaggerated by later commentators. Reportedly, he was frightened of thunderstorms, and so pyrophobic that he rarely cooked his food; he lived on a diet of hard-boiled eggs, which he prepared 50 at a time while boiling glue for his artworks. He also resisted any cleaning of his studio, or trimming of the fruit trees of his orchard; he lived, wrote Vasari, "more like a beast than a man".

If, as Vasari asserts, he spent the last years of his life in gloomy retirement, the change was probably due to preacher Girolamo Savonarola, under whose influence he turned his attention once more to religious art. The death of his master Roselli may also have affected Piero's morose elder years. The Immaculate Conception with Saints, at the Uffizi, and the Holy Family, at Dresden, illustrate the religious fervour to which he was stimulated by Savonarola.

Piero di Cosimo (Italian, Florence 1462–1522 Florence)

A Hunting Scene, ca. 1494–1500

Tempera and oil transferred to Masonite

27 3/4 x 66 3/4 in. (70.5 x 169.5 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This picture and its companion (also in The Met's collection) (See below) reimagine the early history of humankind and are among the most singular works of the Renaissance. Their inspiration was the fifth book of De Rerum Natura by the Epicurean poet and philosopher Lucretius (ca. 99–55 B.C.). A manuscript of Lucretius’s work was discovered in 1417 and published in Florence in 1471–73. Lucretius believed that the workings of the world can be accounted for by natural rather than divine causes, and he put forward a vision of the history of primitive humanity and the advent of civilization that was much discussed in Renaissance Florence—and beyond. More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo (Italian, Florence 1462–1522 Florence)

The Return from the Hunt, ca. 1494–1500

Tempera and oil on wood

27 3/4 x 66 1/2 in. (70.5 x 168.9 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This picture and its companion (also in The Met's collection) (See above) reimagine the early history of humankind and are among the most singular works of the Renaissance. Their inspiration was the fifth book of De Rerum Natura by the Epicurean poet and philosopher Lucretius (ca. 99–55 B.C.). A manuscript of Lucretius’s work was discovered in 1417 and published in Florence in 1471–73. Lucretius believed that the workings of the world can be accounted for by natural rather than divine causes, and he put forward a vision of the history of primitive humanity and the advent of civilization that was much discussed in Renaissance Florence—and beyond. More on this painting

With the exception of the landscape background in Rosselli's fresco of the Sermon on the Mount, in the Sistine Chapel, there is no record of any fresco work from his brush. On the other hand, Piero enjoyed a great reputation as a portrait painter: the most famous of his work is in fact the portrait of a Florentine noblewoman, Simonetta Vespucci (See above), mistress of Giuliano de' Medici. According to Vasari, Piero excelled in designing pageants and triumphal processions for the pleasure-loving youths of Florence, and gives a vivid description of one such procession at the end of the carnival of 1507, which illustrated the triumph of death. Piero di Cosimo exercised considerable influence upon his fellow pupils Albertinelli and Bartolomeo della Porta, and was the master of Andrea del Sarto.

Piero di Cosimo (Italian, 1462–1522)

The Discovery of Honey by Bacchus, c. about 1499

Oil on panel

79.2 x 128.4 cm (31 3/16 x 50 9/16 in.)

Worcester Art Museum

In this allegorical setting the mythological figures of Bacchus and Ariadne, in the right foreground, are accompanied by satyrs and maenads who make noise to attract a swarm of bees to settle in a hollow tree. The result is the discovery of honey, considered a step forward in the history of civilization which is symbolized in the background by the juxtaposition of an idyllic view of a town (on the left) and a wild and forbidding landscape (on the right). More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo

The Misfortunes of Silenus, c. 1500

Oil on panel

80.1 x 129.3 cm (31 9/16 x 50 7/8 in.)

Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University

This panel, along with a companion showing the Discovery of Honey, was probably commissioned as a nuptial gift to adorn the bedchamber in the Florentine palace of Giovanni Vespucci and his bride; both panels are described by the artist and biographer Giorgio Vasari in his Life of Piero di Cosimo. Wasps (vespe in Italian) adorned the family’s coats of arms, and the scenes were certainly chosen as humorous but cautionary tales for the newlyweds. The story is based on passages from Ovid’s Fasti, where Silenus, looking for honey, climbs on the back of his donkey to reach into the hollow of a tree. Inside, he discovers a wasp’s nest, setting off a series of misfortunes: the branch on which he was leaning breaks, and he falls from his donkey, is kicked by an ass, and is stung by the wasps he disturbed. At the left of this panel, Bacchus and Ariadne watch as Silenus’s stings are treated with mud. 

The paintings in the Worcester and Harvard Art Museums shared a common provenance until the “Discovery of Honey” (See above) was sold in 1937 to the Worcester Art Museum and the “Misfortunes of Silenus” was sold in 1940 to the Fogg Art Museum. The Fogg Art Museum purchased the painting directly from Mrs. Douglas. More on this painting

Vasari gave Piero's date of death as 1521, and this date is still repeated by many sources, including the Encyclopædia Britannica. However, contemporary documents reveal that he died of plague on 12 April 1522. He is featured in George Eliot's novel Romola. More on Piero di Cosimo

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19 Works, December 28th. is Alessandro Rosi's day, his art, illustrated with footnotes #256

Alessandro Rosi  (1627–1697) 

St Sébastien cared for by Ste Irene

Oil on canvas

Height: 132 cm (51.9 in); Width: 167.5 cm (65.9 in)

Brest’s Museum of Fine Arts

Sebastian stood by a staircase where the emperor was to pass and harangued Diocletian for his cruelties against Christians. This freedom of speech greatly astonished the emperor; who gave orders for his being seized and beaten to death with cudgels, and his body thrown into the common sewer. A pious lady, called Irene, admonished by the martyr in a vision, got it privately removed, and buried it in the catacombs at the entrance of the cemetery of Calixtus, where now stands the Basilica of St. Sebastian. More on St. Sebastian

Alessandro Rosi (28 December 1627 in Rovezzano – 19 April 1697 in Florence) was an Italian artist, working during the Baroque period.

Alessandro Rosi, (Florence 1627–1697)

Diana, a Satyr and Cupid

Oil on canvas

85 x 67 cm

Private collection

Sold for EUR 32,800.- in May 2019

The present painting is an allegory of Chastity tempted by Vice, represented respectively by Diana and a Satyr. The subject created here by Alessandro Rosi attained considerable success among the painters of his day. More on this painting

In Roman mythology, Diana was the goddess of the hunt, the moon and nature being associated with wild animals and woodland, and having the power to talk to and control animals. She was eventually equated with the Greek goddess Artemis, though she had an independent origin in Italy. Diana was worshipped in ancient Roman religion and is revered in Roman Neopaganism and Stregheria. Diana was known to be the virgin goddess of childbirth and women. She was one of the three maiden goddesses — along with Minerva and Vesta — who swore never to marry. More on Diane

Alessandro Rosi

The Judgment of Paris

Oil on canvas

70 x 55 cm

Private collection

Sold for  €89,940.00 in Jun 2010

Alessandro Rosi

The judgement of Paris

oil on canvas

28 1/2  by 23 in.; 72.5 by 58.5 cm.

Private collection

Estimate for 120,000 - 180,000 USD in January 2013

The present canvas is an early work by Rosi. Compared with his more complicated and multi figured mature pictures, compositions from his early career can be generally categorized as simpler, and with only a few essential figures.

Rosi executed another version of the present composition, of slightly smaller dimensions. (See above)

According to the myth, which varies slightly between Greek and Roman sources, Zeus held a banquet to celebrate the marriage of Achilles' parents. Having not been invited, Eris, the Goddess of Discord, threw a golden apple into the fray, which was inscribed 'to the fairest one'. Athena (Goddess of War), Hera (Zeus's wife and Queen of the Gods) and Aphrodite (Goddess of Love) each claimed that the apple was certainly meant for them, and the mortal Paris was appointed by Zeus to judge who should receive the prize. Having each bathed in the spring of Ida, the goddesses appeared to Paris, who was tending his flock on the mountain, and attempted to bribe him with various prizes. Hera offered to make him King, Athena to transform him into the ultimate warrior, and Aphrodite offered the love of the world's most beautiful woman. In the end, he awarded the apple to Aphrodite and received in return the love of Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, thereby providing the catalyst for the Trojan War. More on The judgement of Paris

Alessandro Rosi

Ceres

Oil on canvas

22 3/8 by 33 1/4 in.; 56.8 by 84.5 cm.

Private collection

Estimated for  $20,000 USD - $30,000 USD in Jan 2008

In ancient Roman religion, Ceres was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. She was originally the central deity in Rome's so-called plebeian or Aventine Triad, then was paired with her daughter Proserpina in what Romans described as "the Greek rites of Ceres". Her seven-day April festival of Cerealia included the popular Ludi Ceriales (Ceres' games) She is usually depicted as a mature woman.

Ceres is the only one of Rome's many agricultural deities to be listed among the Dii Consentes, Rome's equivalent to the Twelve Olympians of Greek mythology. The Romans saw her as the counterpart of the Greek goddess Demeter, whose mythology was reinterpreted for Ceres in Roman art and literature. More on Ceres

Alessandro Rosi

Bacchanalia, c. 1670

Oil on canvas, 67 x 90 cm

Private collection

Bacchanalia,  also called Dionysia, in Greco-Roman religion, any of the several festivals of Bacchus (Dionysus), the wine god. They probably originated as rites of fertility gods. Introduced into Rome from lower Italy, the Bacchanalia were at first held in secret, attended by women only, on three days of the year. Later, admission was extended to men, and celebrations took place as often as five times a month. The reputation of these festivals as orgies led in 186 bc to a decree of the Roman Senate that prohibited the Bacchanalia throughout Italy, except in certain special cases. Nevertheless, Bacchanalia long continued in the south of Italy.  More on Bacchanalia

Rosi trained in the workshops of Jacopo Vignali and Cesare Dandini, along with other young Florentine artists such as Carlo Dolci. It seems that he undertook a study trip to Rome, where he saw the work of Simon Vouet and Giovanni Lanfranco. In his early works the influence of his teacher Dandini can be seen, especially in the treatment of drapery, to which the latter always paid great attention. His biographer Baldinucci described him as having the extravagant temperament of an artist. Rosi enjoyed the patronage of some of the most important Florentine families of the time, such as the Corsini or Rinuccini families, for which he undertook large decorative projects. He also made a series of ten designs for tapestries commissioned by Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. His foremost pupil was Alessandro Gherardini. He died at the age of seventy after being struck by a falling column while walking along the Via Condotta in Florence.

Alessandro Rosi

The guardian angel

Oil on canvas

69.3 by 55.9 cm.; 27 1/4  by 22 in.

Private collection

Sold for 37,500 GBP in December 2014

This engaging image embodies those qualities of emotional and religious intensity depicted in the sinuous style of the Florentine Seicento for which Alessandro Rosi is admired. The theme of the guardian angel was employed several times by Carlo Dolci, the leading figure in Florence of the generation preceeding Rosi's. Dolci's influence can be felt in the in the use of the half-length figures, the intensity of the relationship between the angel and youth, and in the distinctive profile of the angel. More on this painting

Alessandro Rosi

Cain and Abel

oil on canvas

26 3/4  by 20 1/2  in.; 68 by 52 cm.

Private collection

Sold for 37,500 USD in January 2018

In the dramatic scene, Rosi depicts the moment just after Cain has slain his brother Abel, who lays ashen in the foreground, as God the Father appears in a swirl of clouds above.  In Rosi's striking composition, Cain's back is turned to the viewer as he looks up at God above, the drama of their encounter enhanced by the stormy blue and purple sky. More on this painting

Alessandro Rosi

Rebecka at the well

Oil on canvas

117 x 92 cm

Private collection

Abraham wanted a wife for his son Isaac and sent his senior steward to his homeland of Mesopotamia to find a suitable woman. Tired after his long journey, the steward stopped at a well and prayed for guidance. When Rebecca came to get water, she offered it to the old man and his camels, and he recognized her as the appointed bride.

Alessandro Rosi

Hagar and the Angel

Oil on canvas

101 x 80 cm

Private collection

Sold for GBP 24,000 in Jul 2005

In this biblical narrative, which appears in Genesis 21:15–19, Hagar and her son Ishmael are expelled from Abraham’s house and wander in the wilderness for days. Having run out of water, Hagar can no longer bear the sight of her suffering son, so she leaves Ishmael under a bush and goes off to pray. 

Then an angel appears to her and says, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” God opens her eyes, and she sees a well to provide water for her dying son. She fills her empty flask with water and returns to the young boy to revive him. More on Hagar and the Angel

Alessandro Rosi

The Holy family

Oil on canvas

Musée départemental de l'Oise

Alessandro Rosi

The Holy Family

Oil on canvas

47 5/8 x 43 7/8 in. (121 x 111.5 cm.)

Private collection

Sold for GBP 344,750 in Jul 2018

The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Saint Joseph. Veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de Laval, the first bishop of New France, who founded a Confraternity.

Matthew and Luke narrate the episodes from this period of Christ's life, namely his Circumcision and later Presentation, the Flight to Egypt, the return to Nazareth, and the Finding in the Temple.[Joseph and Mary were apparently observant Jews, as Luke narrates that they brought Jesus with them on the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem with other Jewish families. More on The Holy Family

The arrangement of the Madonna and Child is drawn from a successful invention by Dandini, which Rosi’s master treated on a number of occasions, including versions in the Ospedale di Santa Maria Nuova in Florence and a private collection in Milan (S. Bellesi, Cesare Dandini, Turin, 1996, pp. 177-8, nos. 119-120). Rosi elaborates on the composition with a touch of humour and domestic realism, as the cat paws at the dish on the table, and the Child plays with the bows of the Madonna’s dress; the embroidered draperies and architectural setting meanwhile speak of a new baroque exuberance. More on this painting

Alessandro Rosi (Florence 1627–1697)

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas

Oil on canvas

108 x 84 cm

Private collection

Estimated for EUR 40,000.- to EUR 60,000.- in Oct 2017

The painting shows the episode that gave rise to the term "Doubting Thomas" which, formally known as the Incredulity of Thomas, had been frequently represented in Christian art since at least the 5th century, and used to make a variety of theological points. According to the Gospel of John, Thomas the Apostle missed one of Jesus's appearances to the Apostles after his resurrection, and said "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."John 20:25 A week later, Jesus appeared and told Thomas to touch him and stop doubting. Then Jesus said, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."John 20:29 More on The Incredulity of Saint Thomas

Alessandro Rosi

Mary Magdalene

Oil on canvas

144 x 89.5 cm

Private collection

Sold for 30.000,00 EUR

Mary Magdalene is sitting on a rock with a wooden crucifix in hand and surrounded by angels. The color of the drapery, lying in order to create subtle chiaroscuro effects, gives plasticity to the figure.

Mary Magdalene,  literally translated as Mary the Magdalene or Mary of Magdala, is a figure in Christianity who, according to the Bible, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers. She is said to have witnessed Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. Within the four Gospels she is named more than most of the apostles. Based on texts of the early Christian era in the third century, it seems that her status as an “apostle" rivals even Peter's.

The Gospel of Luke says seven demons had gone out of her. She is most prominent in the narrative of the crucifixion of Jesus, at which she was present. She was also present two days later when, she was, either alone or as a member of a group of women, the first to testify to the resurrection of Jesus. John 20 and Mark 16:9 specifically name her as the first person to see Jesus after his resurrection.

During the Middle Ages, Mary Magdalene was regarded in Western Christianity as a repentant prostitute or promiscuous woman, claims not found in any of the four canonical gospels. More Mary Magdalene

Alessandro Rosi (Florence 1627-1707)

The Ecstasy of Saint Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi

oil on canvas

47¼ x 40 in. (120 x 101.6 cm.)

Private collection

Sold for GBP 46,100 in Apr 2008

St. Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi was a Carmelite nun of Florence who lived from 1566 to 1607. Baptised Caterina, she was the daughter of a union between two great noble families--her father being Camillo Geri de' Pazzi and her mother a member of the Buondelmonti house. Caterina received her first ecstatic vision at the age of 12. From the age of 14 she studied at the Calaresse, where the sisters observed her remarkable piety and prophesied that she would become a great saint. At the age of 16, having convinced her parents of her decision to dedicate herself to God, Caterina entered the Carmelite convent of Santa Maria degl' Angeli, well-known for its strict observance; she was clothed in 1583--taking the name Maria Maddalena--and professed in 1584.

The extraordinary was ordinary for this saint. She read the thoughts of others and predicted future events. During her lifetime, Mary Magdalene appeared to several persons in distant places and cured a number of sick people.

St. Mary held a number of offices in the convent before rising to that of Superior in 1604. Throughout her life, she continued to experience divine raptures, which often led her to utter maxims of Divine Love and spiritual counsel that were later collected as her Works. Beatified by Urban VII on 8 May 1626, she was canonised by Clement IX on 28 April 1669; her feast is kept on 27 May. More on Alessandro Rosi

Alessandro Rosi (Florence 1627 - 1697)

Sant'Agata curated by San Pietro, c. 1650-60

Oil on octagonal canvas

98x77 cm and 94x78 cm

Private collection

Sold for 70 000 € in May 2019

Rosi adopted this style that led him to success: dense and flagrant brushstrokes, drapery puffy, bright and enameled colors, strong chiaroscuro effects.

Pietro is caught in the act of spreading the ointment on the battered breast of the young woman who perhaps out of modesty looks away from the loving gesture, showing us the profile, the shoulder and the breast left uncovered by the shirt. The pose of this female figure recurs throughout Rosi's work. 

The sacred book and the palm of martyrdom in the foreground and the three blond cherubs with tufts wind in the background. More on this painting

Having dedicated her virginity to God, fifteen-year-old Agatha rejected the amorous advances of tRoman prefect Quintianus, who then persecuted her for her Christian faith. He sent Agatha to Aphrodisia, the keeper of a brothel. The madam finding her intractable, Quintianus sent for her, argued, threatened, and finally had her put in prison. Amongst the tortures she underwent was the cutting off of her breasts with pincers. After further dramatic confrontations with Quintianus, Saint Agatha was then sentenced to be burnt at the stake, but an earthquake saved her from that fate; instead, she was sent to prison where St. Peter the Apostle appeared to her and healed her wounds. Saint Agatha died in prison.  More on Saint Agatha of Sicily

Alessandro Rosi  (1627–1697)

Santa Cristina consoled by the Angels, c. 1650-60

Oil on octagonal canvases

98x77 cm and 94x78 cm

Private collection

Estimated for  £15,000 GBP - £25,000 GBP in Jul 2005

The painting narrates the tortures inflicted by the father and the emperor on the young and beautiful Cristina, first segregated in a tower and then pierced by arrows following her obstinacy not to want to renounce the Christian faith. Her bruised complexion is the clear sign of the suffering she is undergoing.

Wrapped in a lilac-colored dress, on which rests a white shawl embellished with blue and golden borders, Cristina is tied by a rope to a pole, exposed to the wrath of torturers who nevertheless do not appear in the representation. Unbalanced on one side, with her head bent, looking afflicted and aching, the young woman seems to find comfort only in the little angel who offers her the palm of martyrdom and in the two cherubs that look out into the sky crossed by clouds streaked with the same lilac of the his dress. More on this painting

Alessandro Rosi  (1627–1697)

S. Michele e S. Benedetto/S. Michele and S. Benedetto, c. 1665

Oil on canvas

Monastero di San Clemente (Prato)

San Michele is the Italian name of Saint Michael the Archangel.

The earliest surviving mentions of his name are in 3rd and 2nd century BCE Jewish works, often but not always apocalyptic, where he is the chief of the angels and archangels and responsible for the care of Israel. Christianity adopted nearly all the Jewish traditions concerning him, and he is mentioned explicitly in Revelation where he does battle with Satan, and in the Epistle of Jude, where the author denounces heretics by contrasting them with the Michael. He is also mentioned in surah of the Quran, where the Jews of Medina challenge Muhammed to tell them the name of the angel from whom he received revelation, and when told that it was Gabriel they reply that revelations came from Michael. More on Saint Michael

Saint Benedict founded twelve communities for monks at Subiaco, Lazio, Italy, before moving to Monte Cassino in the mountains of southern Italy. The Order of Saint Benedict is of later origin and, moreover, not an "order" as commonly understood but merely a confederation of autonomous congregations.

Benedict's main achievement, his "Rule of Saint Benedict", contains a set of rules for his monks to follow. Heavily influenced by the writings of John Cassian, it shows strong affinity with the Rule of the Master, but it also has a unique spirit of balance, moderation and reasonableness, which persuaded most Christian religious communities founded throughout the Middle Ages to adopt it. As a result, his Rule became one of the most influential religious rules in Western Christendom. For this reason, Giuseppe Carletti regarded Benedict as the founder of Western Christian monasticism. More on Saint Benedict

Alessandro Rosi  (1627–1697)

Female Saint with Putto

c. 1646

Oil on canvas, 64 x 51 cm

Private collection

Sold for GBP 37,600 in Dec 2001

The life and career of Alessandro Rosi had long remained hidden from scholarly attention, until 1989 when Alessandra Guicciardini published a study on his commission for the Palazzo Corsini in Florence. Until that point, many of his pictures had routinely been attributed to Sigismondo Coccapani, a Florentine contemporary, close in style. Rosi led a colourful life, noted by his biographers as a skilled draughtsman, who trained with Cesare Dandini and worked for Ferdinand de’ Medici, and died in an ‘extraordinary accident’: while walking on the via Condotta in Florence, a column fell from a terrace above and killed him. More on Alessandro Rosi

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