NYC & London Dealers To Present

Five Centuries Of Art Masterpieces

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Michelangelo Merisi, called Caravaggio (1571–1610), “Apollo and the Lute Player,” oil on canvas, 37¾ by 47½ inches. Private collection.

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Pietro Paolo Romano (active circa 1552–70), a heroic bust of Ottavio Farnese, circa 1556, bronze, height 33 inches.

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NYC & LONDON DEALERS PRESENT FIVE CENTURIES OF ART MASTERPIECES w/2 cuts e-mailed

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NEW YORK CITY — “Masterpieces of Art: Five Centuries of Painting and Sculpture,” an exhibition featuring paintings and sculpture by some of Europe’s greatest artists, will be conducted at Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, in association with Whitfield Fine Art, London, Wednesday, October 17, to February 1. This collaboration between the two art dealers will provide an opportunity to see and acquire a selection of works, seldom seen on the market and that would be prized by any major museum, by artists whose reputations have stood the test of time.

The exhibition will be presented in two parts. First, there will be a selection of Italian works from the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries with paintings by Botticelli, Correggio, Parmigianino, Pontormo, Andrea del Sarto, Titian and Guido Reni, as well as sculpture, including a bronze bust by Pietro Paolo Romano. In addition, there will be important works by Dutch, Flemish, French and Spanish masters, including Matthias Stomer, Simon Vouet and Goya.

The second part of the exhibition will feature “Apollo the Lute player,” an important work by one of the most influential Italian painters of the Seventeenth Century Michelangelo Merisi, called Caravaggio (1571–1610), on loan from a private collection.

Caravaggio’s “Lute player” is one of the best known images in Western art, known for so long by the second version the artist painted, which is now in the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. The original “Lute player,” the subject now recognized as “Apollo the Lute player,” was purchased in Italy in 1726 by the third Duke of Beaufort and languished unrecognized at Badminton House, Somerset, for nearly 300 years.

Among the highlights of the paintings for sale is “Saint Peter visiting Saint Agatha in Prison” by the French prodigy Simon Vouet (1590–1649), one of many artists whose were influenced by Caravaggio.

The exhibition boasts two works by the Emilian master Giorlamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, called Il Parmigianino (1503–40). “Saturn Disguised as a Winged Horse Abducting Philyra with Eros as Witness,” circa 1531–35, is one of the most significant discoveries in Sixteenth Century Italian painting in recent years. The second work by Parmigianino is an extensively published portrait, thought to be of a Farnese courtier sometimes identified as the same Francesco Baiardo painted in Rome in 1526.

“A Madonna and Child,” circa 1500, by Sandro Filipepi called Botticelli (1444/5–1510) is a striking composition widely recognized as a product of one of the most dramatic and defining artistic personalities of the Florentine Renaissance.

“Madonna and Child with St John” by Andrea del Sarto (1486–1530) is one of the most important rediscoveries in Italian High Renaissance scholarship in recent years.

There are two major works by the Florentine Mannerist artist Jacopo Carucci called Pontormo (1494–1556) one of which, “Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist,” circa 1517–18, was only recently rediscovered as a work by Pontormo shortly after its emergence on the art market from a Boston private collection where it had been since the Nineteenth Century.

The second Pontormo is “Portrait of Francesca Capponi, as Saint Mary Magdalen,” circa 1525–28. It has recently been cleaned, removing an opaque varnish to reveal the artist’s characteristic vibrant brushstrokes.

Among the sculpture in the exhibition is “A Heroic Bust of Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza” (1524–86) by Pietro Paolo Romano (active circa 1552–70?).

Salander-O’Reilly Galleries is at 22 East 71st Street. For information, 212-879-6606 or www.salander.com.