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Old Masters Art

OLD MASTERS

Encompassing centuries of change in Europe between 1300 and 1800, from booms of prosperity to bloody revolutions, Old Masters describes a wide range of artists. The informal term was derived from the title of an artist who trained in a guild long enough to become a master, such as Leonardo da Vinci, who studied in a Florence painters’ guild. However, Old Masters paintings, prints and other art is now used to refer to work made by any artist with a high level of skill in painting, drawing, sculpture or printmaking who worked during this era.

The 15th century’s expansive trade and commerce spread culture across borders. A vibrant period of art emerged, bolstered by studies of anatomy and nature that influenced a new visual realism. From Raphael and Michelangelo in the Renaissance to Rembrandt van Rijn and Johannes Vermeer in the Dutch Golden Age, artists expressed emotion, naturalism, color and light in new ways. El Greco and Paolo Veronese were leaders in the dramatic style of Mannerism, while Caravaggio and Peter Paul Rubens demonstrated the movement and meticulous detail of Baroque art.

Historically, most attention was concentrated on male artists, but recent research and exhibitions have elevated the impactful work of women such as Rachel Ruysch and Artemisia Gentileschi. In late-18th-century France, female artists like Adélaïde Labille-Guiard and Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun were prominent names. Nevertheless, access to the academies and guilds was highly restricted for women, and even those able to establish practices were expected to adhere to portraits and still lifes rather than the grand history paintings being created by men.

Find a collection of Old Masters prints, paintings, drawings and watercolors and other art on 1stDibs.

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Style: Old Masters
Recognized Seller Listings
Two Trophies With a Cuirass Lower Left
Located in New York, NY
Enea Vico (1523-1567) engraving, Two Trophies With a Cuirass Lower Left, 1550, Bartsch 449, with the name of the publisher Ant[onio] Lafreri at bottom, first state (of 2) before numb...
Category

16th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Engraving

The Large Village Fair
Located in Chicago, IL
The Large Village Fair, 1685 Etching 268 x 377 mm.; 10 1/2 x 13 1/4 inches Watermark: Arms of Amsterdam Provenance: H. Freiherr von und zu Aufsess (Lugt 2749) M. Menge (Lugt 1893a). References: Hollstein 16 Notes: A fine, early impression (before spots on the sky) of one of Dusart’s most powerful and fanciful works. Concerning the provenances of this etching: Hans von und zu Aufsess (1801-1872) was a great book lover and also a major collector of Old Master prints. He was one of the founders, in 1852, of the Germanisches Museum in Nürnberg and was that museum’s director until 1862. Mas Menge (died in 1945) was a famous violinist and also a major collector of Old Master prints and drawings.
Category

17th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Etching

Allegorical Figure, Holding a Ball
Located in Chicago, IL
Provenance: Edouard Schultze (Lugt 906) References: Bartsch 34 Boorsch & Lewis 38 Notes: A fine impression of this engraving. Boorsch and Lewis state that this work dates from “the mid-1560s” and suggest that it was after a work by Giulio Romano...
Category

16th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Engraving

S. Paolo Fuori Le Mura (Vedute della Basilica di S. Paolo fuor della mura)
Located in Fairlawn, OH
S. Paolo Fuori Le Mura (Vedute della Basilica di S. Paolo fuor della mura) Etching, 1748 From...
Category

1740s Old Masters Art

Materials

Etching

Adam Elsheimer, etching after a painting of Elsheimer by Jan Meyssens
Located in New York, NY
Wenzel Hollar (1607-1677), Adam Elsheimer, etching after a painting of Elsheimer by Jan Meyssens, 1649, with text and signatures as described below. Ref...
Category

1640s Old Masters Art

Materials

Etching

Sir Richard Sutton's foxhounds
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
John Ferneley Snr (1782-1860 Melton Mowbray) Sir Richard Sutton's foxhounds signed J. Ferneley lower right Oil on canvas Canvas Size 16 1/8 x 20 1/2 in Framed Size 21 x 25 in Proven...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil

Gimcrack with jockey up, wearing the colours of 1st Earl Grosvenor
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
John Nost Sartorius (London 1759-1828) Gimcrack with jockey up, wearing the colours of Richard Grosvenor, 1st Earl Grosvenor Inscribed and signed 'Gi...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil

Herding cattle through a wooded river landscape
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
James Stark (1794-1859) Herding cattle through a wooded river landscape Oil on canvas Canvas Size 18 x 24 in Framed Size 23 x 29 in James Stark (1794-1859): A Pioneer in Landscape P...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil

Oriental Shop
Located in Storrs, CT
An Oriental Shop. 1890. Etching. Wisselingh 11. 5 5/8 x 4 1/8 (sheet 12 9/16 x 9 1/8). Number 21. A rich, tonal impression printed on Strasbourg laid paper with a partial watermark...
Category

Late 19th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Etching

Study of a hound in a landscape
By Sawrey Gilpin
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
Sawrey Gilpin (1733-1807) Study of a hound in a landscape Oil on canvas Canvas Size - 14 x 17 in Framed Size - 17 x 20 in Provenance: Victor Brockbank Fine Art, London; Private Coll...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil

A greyhound in a landscape
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
Pieter Frederick Van Os (1808-1892) A greyhound in a landscape Signed 'P. F: Van Os. f 1825' lower left Oil on canvas Canvas Size - 46 x 39 in Framed Size - 51 x 44 in Provenance: C...
Category

19th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil

A bay hunter in a landscape
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
Charles Towne (1763-1840) A bay hunter in a landscape signed and dated 'Charles Towne Pinxit 1816' lower left Oil on canvas Painting Size - 20 x 26 Framed Size - 25 x 31 in Provena...
Category

Early 19th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

A classical landscape with a shepherd and his flock
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
George Smith of Chichester (1714-1776) A classical landscape with a shepherd and his flock oil on canvas Painting Size 17 x 15 in Framed Size 22 x 30 in George Smith was one of thre...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil

The So-Called Tempio della Tosse, Near Tivoli. Interior Upright
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The So-Called Tempio della Tosse, Near Tivoli. Interior Upright (Veduta interna del Tempio della Tosse) "Temple of the Cough" Etching, 1764 Signed in the plate From: Vedute di Roma...
Category

1760s Old Masters Art

Materials

Etching

Folio from Communion of Saints, Reading from the Book of St. Matthew.
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Readings from the "Communion of Saints": folio from an Italian Missal Pigment on vellum Mid 17th century Provenance: Otto F. Ege (1888-1951) Phillip Duechnes Bookseller, New York, c. 1948 References And Exhibitions: Otto F. Ege Box Folio 27 Ege describes these folios as: Epistolary (Epistolarium), Italy, Middle 15th century Latin Text: Rotunda or Round Gothic Script, square rhetorical neumes Sister folio are in the following rare book libraries: Case Western Reserve University Cincinnati Public Library Cleveland Institute of Art Cleveland Public Library Denison University Kent State University Kenyon College...
Category

15th Century and Earlier Old Masters Art

Materials

Ink, Vellum

XXXIII Fig. I Avanzo del Tempio di Castore e Polluce
Located in Fairlawn, OH
XXXIII Fig. I Avanzo del Tempio di Castore e Polluce .View of the Remains of the Peristyle of the House of Nero, Etching, 1756 Signed in the plate (see photo) From: Le Antichità Roma...
Category

1750s Old Masters Art

Materials

Etching

Russian Orthodox Church, Middle 19th Century
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Unknown Russian Artist Russian Orthodox Church, Middle 19th century Unsigned Illuminated in red, yellow blue and green pigments and gold leaf on paper An Illuminated manuscript folio...
Category

Mid-19th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Pigment

St. Peter's Interior with the Nave
Located in Fairlawn, OH
St. Peter's Interior with the Nave Veduta interna della Basilica di S. Pietro in Vaticano Etching, 1748 Signed in the plate From: Vedute di Roma, Plate 5 An early Roman...
Category

1740s Old Masters Art

Materials

Etching

Veduta dell'esterno della gran Basilica di S. Pietro in Vaticano
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Veduta dell'esterno della gran Basilica di S. Pietro in Vaticano (View of the Exterior of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican) Etching, 1748 From the first printing of the "Vedute di...
Category

1740s Old Masters Art

Materials

Etching

The Ponte and Castel S. Angelo (Veduta del Ponte e Castello Sant' Angelo)
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The Ponte and Castel S. Angelo Veduta del Ponte e Castello Sant' Angelo Etching, 1754 Signed in the plate lower right above the caption From: Vedute di Roma A proper Roman printing with the price in the lower right corner. Printed on a Double Circle Fleur de Lys watermark paper, c. 1760, with full margins. A brilliant impression . Note: A view of the Tiber River, Castello Sant' Angelo and St. Peter's Basilica in the distance. Watermark: Double Circle Fleur de Lys References: Robison c/g Hind 29 ii/VII Foclllon 793 Condition: A Roman printing before the numbers added in Paris. Printed on a Double Circle Fleur-de-Lys watermark paper. Right margin folded over 5/8 inches for framing. Usual centerfold as issued in the album. Slight aging to the sheet. Binding holes at the left margin edge Framed with plexi. Plate size: 14 7/8 x 22 7/8 inches Sheet size: 21 5/8 x 30 5/16 inches Frame size: 22 3/4 x 33 1/2 inches Sant’Angelo Bridge, Italian Ponte Sant’Angelo, ancient (Latin) Pons Aelius, ancient Roman bridge, probably the finest surviving in Rome itself, built over the Tiber by the emperor Hadrian (reigned 117–138 AD) to connect the Campus Martius with his mausoleum (later renamed Castel Sant’Angelo). The bridge was completed about AD 135. It consists of seven stone arches and five main spans of about 60 feet (18 m) each, supported on piers 24 feet (7 m) high. In the 13th century Pope Clement IV installed an iron balustrade and in the 16th century Pope Clement VII placed statues of Saints Peter and Paul...
Category

1750s Old Masters Art

Materials

Etching

Julius Caesar on Horseback
Located in New York, NY
Provenance: Private Collection, South America Antonio Tempesta began his career in Florence, working on the decoration of the Palazzo Vecchio under the direction of Giorgio Vasari. He was a pupil first of Santi di Tito...
Category

16th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Portrait of a gentleman in red military uniform
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
David Morier (1705-1770) Portrait of a gentleman in red military uniform Oil on canvas Canvas Size - 32 x 24 in Framed Size - 39 1/2 x 31 in Provenance: Sale, Christie's London, 21s...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil

A German Pointer with hunting Equipment
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
German School (18th century) A German Pointer with hunting Equipment Oil on canvas Canvas Size 42 x 35 in Framed Size 48 x 41 in
Category

18th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil

Italian landscape with Monte Socrate (after Jan Both)
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
Richard Bankes Harraden (1778-1862) Italian landscape with Monte Socrate (after Jan Both) Signed and dated 1823 on the reverse Oil on canvas Canvas size - 29 x 41 in Framed Size - 37...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil

Roundel depicting St. Catherine
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Unknown French Art and Workshop, Middle 15th century Roundel depicting St. Catherine (?) Gouache, ink gold wash and gold burnishing on vellum Book of Hours folio attributed to the C...
Category

15th Century and Earlier Old Masters Art

Materials

Gouache, Pigment

BATHOS / Tail PIece
Located in Santa Monica, CA
WILLIAM HOGRATH (1767- 1764) THE BATHOS / Tail Piece 1764 (Paulson 1989: 216 I/I Paulson 1965/70: 216 I/I) Engraving Plate 12 7/8 x 13 3/8, sheet 17 ¾ x 18 ¾ Designed & Engrav’d by Wm Hogarth at left and Published according to Act of Parliam’t March 3, 1764 at right. Good condition on thick laid paper Small bit of tape on the left & right sheet edges small stan lower sheet edge all on recto. This Hogarth’s last print is fascinating as it is prophacy about death. Various institutions have interesting commentaries - to wit: Chicago Art Institute: Hogarth created The Bathos toward the end of his life. It is considered one of the bleakest artworks of the 18th century because it depicts the Apocalypse without an afterlife. The Angel of Death even collapses in exhaustion after having destroyed the world. In his hand is an execution decree and around him lies a mass of broken objects. Princeton: Hogarth’s last print, The Bathos,….. is filled with all manner of images denoting the end of life as we know it. Entry no. 216 in Ronald Paulson’s catalogue raisonne Hogarth’s Graphic Works, 3rd revised edition says “This print is the culmination of such pessimistic images . . . . [taking] his general composition, the configuration of objects, and some of the particular items, from Dürer’s engraving, Melancholia; but he also recalls Salvator Rosa’s Democritus in Meditation (which derives from Dürer’s print) with a scroll at the bottom of the etching: ‘Democritus the mocker of all things, confounded by the ending of All Things’ (Antal, p.168).” Newfields (Indianapolis Museum of Art): Hogarth intended this engraving to serve as the tailpiece to bound volumes of his collected engravings and, appropriately, it proved to be his last engraving. Father Time has died and his last will and testament has been witnessed by the three Fates. He is surrounded by a landscape of death, decay, and ruin. Hogarth aimed this print at dealers in “dark” Old Masters paintings who promoted the idea that ruins evoked sublime feelings in viewers—a sentiment, Hogarth wrote, that was reducing the world to ruin. British Caricature...
Category

1760s Old Masters Art

Materials

Woodcut

Memento mori - A study of a Skull in two positions
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
E. Rusch (late 19th century) Memento mori - Study of a skull in two positions Pencil drawing Signed and dated lower right Drawing Size - 13 x 18 in Framed Size - 19 1/2 x 24 1/2 in ...
Category

19th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Pencil

The Arch of Constantine and the Colosseum
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The Arch of Constantine and the Colosseum Vedute dell' Arco di Costantino, e dell' Anfiteatro Flavio il Colosseo From: "Vedute di Roma" (Roman Views), part II An early Paris edition,...
Category

1760s Old Masters Art

Materials

Etching

Memento mori - A study of a Skull
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
E. Rusch (late 19th century) Memento mori - Study of a skull Pencil drawing Drawing Size - 11 x 18 in Framed Size - 17 1/2 x 24 1/2 in Memento mori is an artistic or symbolic trope acting as a reminder of the inevitability of death. The concept has its roots in the philosophers of classical antiquity and Christianity, and appeared in funerary art and architecture from the medieval period...
Category

19th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Pencil

The Nativity of Christ
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Anonymous 15th Century Italian, Probably Milan area The Nativity of Christ Pigments, ink and gold leaf on vellum Unsigned as is always the case with illum...
Category

15th Century and Earlier Old Masters Art

Materials

Pigment

The Resurrection of Christ
Located in New York, NY
Provenance: with “Mr. Scheer,” Vienna, by July 1918; where acquired by: Jindřich Waldes, Prague, 1918–1941; thence by descent to: Private Collection, New York Literature: Rudolf Kuchynka, “České obrazy tabulové ve Waldesově obrazárně,” Památky archeologické, vol. 31 (1919), pp. 62-64, fig. 5. Jaroslav Pešina, “K datování deskových obrazů ve Waldesově obrazárně,” Ročenka Kruhu pro Pěstování Dějin Umění: za rok (1934), pp. 131-137. Jaroslav Pešina, Pozdně gotické deskové malířství v Čechách, Prague, 1940, pp. 150-151, 220. Patrik Šimon, Jindřich Waldes: sběratel umění, Prague, 2001, pp. 166, 168, footnote 190. Ivo Hlobil, “Tři gotické obrazy ze sbírky Jindřicha Waldese,” Umění, vol. 52, no. 4 (2004), p. 369. Executed sometime in the 1380s or 1390s by a close associate of the Master of the Třeboň Altarpiece, this impressive panel is a rare work created at the royal court in Prague and a significant re-discovery for the corpus of early Bohemian painting. It has emerged from an American collection, descendants of the celebrated Czech industrialist and collector Jindřich Waldes, who died in Havana fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe. The distinctive visual tradition of the Bohemian school first began to take shape in the middle of the fourteenth century after Charles IV—King of Bohemia and later Holy Roman Emperor—established Prague as a major artistic center. The influx of foreign artists and the importation of significant works of art from across Europe had a profound influence on the development of a local pictorial style. Early Italian paintings, especially those by Sienese painters and Tommaso da Modena (who worked at Charles IV’s court), had a considerable impact on the first generation of Bohemian painters. Although this influence is still felt in the brilliant gold ground and the delicate tooling of the present work, the author of this painting appears to be responding more to the paintings of his predecessors in Prague than to foreign influences. This Resurrection of Christ employs a compositional format that was popular throughout the late medieval period but was particularly pervasive in Bohemian painting. Christ is shown sitting atop a pink marble sarcophagus, stepping down onto the ground with one bare foot. He blesses the viewer with his right hand, while in his left he holds a triumphal cross with a fluttering banner, symbolizing his victory over death. Several Roman soldiers doze at the base of the tomb, except for one grotesque figure, who, beginning to wake, shields his eyes from the light and looks on with a face of bewilderment as Christ emerges from his tomb. Christ is wrapped in a striking red robe with a blue interior lining, the colors of which vary subtly in the changing light. He stands out prominently against the gold backdrop, which is interrupted only by the abstractly rendered landscape and trees on either side of him. The soldiers’ armor is rendered in exacting detail, the cool gray of the metal contrasting with the earth tones of the outer garments. The sleeping soldier set within a jumble of armor with neither face nor hands exposed, is covered with what appears to be a shield emblazoned with two flies on a white field, somewhat resembling a cartouche (Fig. 1). This may be a heraldic device of the altarpiece’s patron or it may signify evil, referencing either the Roman soldiers or death, over both of which Christ triumphs. This painting formed part of the collection assembled by the Czech industrialist and founder of the Waldes Koh-i-noor Company, Jindřich Waldes, in the early twentieth century. As a collector he is best remembered for establishing the Waldes Museum in Prague to house his collection of buttons (totaling nearly 70,000 items), as well as for being the primary patron of the modernist painter František Kupka. Waldes was also an avid collector of older art, and he approached his collecting activity with the goal of creating an encyclopedic collection of Czech art from the medieval period through to the then-present day. At the conclusion of two decades of collecting, his inventory counted 2331 paintings and drawings, 4764 prints, and 162 sculptures. This collection, which constituted the Waldesova Obrazárna (Waldes Picture Gallery), was first displayed in Waldes’ home in Prague at 44 Americká Street and later at his newly built Villa Marie at 12 Koperníkova Street. This Resurrection of Christ retains its frame from the Waldes Picture Gallery, including its original plaque “173 / Česky malíř z konce 14 stol.” (“Czech painter from the end of the 14th century”) and Waldes’ collection label on the reverse. The Resurrection of Christ was one of the most significant late medieval panel...
Category

15th Century and Earlier Old Masters Art

Materials

Tempera, Panel

DEATH OF THE FIRST BORN - Proof - Magnificent Large Scale Mezzotint
By John Martin
Located in Santa Monica, CA
JOHN MARTIN (1789 – 1854) DEATH OF THE FIRST BORN, Dedicated to His Majesty King Louise Philippe, King of the French, as a Tribute of the Artist’s Grateful...
Category

1830s Old Masters Art

Materials

Mezzotint

Portrait of a Lady with a Chiqueador
Located in New York, NY
Provenance: Torres Family Collection, Asunción, Paraguay, ca. 1967-2017 While the genre of portraiture flourished in the New World, very few examples of early Spanish colonial portraits have survived to the present day. This remarkable painting is a rare example of female portraiture, depicting a member of the highest echelons of society in Cuzco during the last quarter of the 17th century. Its most distinctive feature is the false beauty mark (called a chiqueador) that the sitter wears on her left temple. Chiqueadores served both a cosmetic and medicinal function. In addition to beautifying their wearers, these silk or velvet pouches often contained medicinal herbs thought to cure headaches. This painting depicts an unidentified lady from the Creole elite in Cuzco. Her formal posture and black costume are both typical of the established conventions of period portraiture and in line with the severe fashion of the Spanish court under the reign of Charles II, which remained current until the 18th century. She is shown in three-quarter profile, her long braids tied with soft pink bows and decorated with quatrefoil flowers, likely made of silver. Her facial features are idealized and rendered with great subtly, particularly in the rosy cheeks. While this portrait lacks the conventional coat of arms or cartouche that identifies the sitter, her high status is made clear by the wealth of jewels and luxury materials present in the painting. She is placed in an interior, set off against the red velvet curtain tied in the middle with a knot on her right, and the table covered with gold-trimmed red velvet cloth at the left. The sitter wears a four-tier pearl necklace with a knot in the center with matching three-tiered pearl bracelets and a cross-shaped earing with three increasingly large pearls. She also has several gold and silver rings on both hands—one holds a pair of silver gloves with red lining and the other is posed on a golden metal box, possibly a jewelry box. The materials of her costume are also of the highest quality, particularly the white lace trim of her wide neckline and circular cuffs. The historical moment in which this painting was produced was particularly rich in commissions of this kind. Following his arrival in Cuzco from Spain in the early 1670’s, bishop Manuel de Mollinedo y Angulo actively promoted the emergence of a distinctive regional school of painting in the city. Additionally, with the increase of wealth and economic prosperity in the New World, portraits quickly became a way for the growing elite class to celebrate their place in society and to preserve their memory. Portraits like this one would have been prominently displayed in a family’s home, perhaps in a dynastic portrait gallery. We are grateful to Professor Luis Eduardo Wuffarden for his assistance cataloguing this painting on the basis of high-resolution images. He has written that “the sober palette of the canvas, the quality of the pigments, the degree of aging, and the craquelure pattern on the painting layer confirm it to be an authentic and representative work of the Cuzco school of painting...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Job Cursed by His Wife
By Giovanni Battista Langetti
Located in New York, NY
Provenance: Alfred (1883-1961) and Hermine Stiassni (1889-1962), Brno, Czech Republic, by 1925; thence London, 1938-1940; thence Los Angeles, 1940-1962; thence by descent to: Susanne Stiassni Martin and Leonard Martin, San Francisco, until 2005; thence by descent to: Private Collection, California Exhibited: Künstlerhaus, Brünn (Brno), 1925, as by Ribera. “Art of Collecting,” Flint Institute of Art, Flint, Michigan, 23 November 2018 – 6 January 2019. Literature: Alte Meister...
Category

1670s Old Masters Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Suite of 12 Views of Italy
By Franz Weirotter
Located in New York, NY
Franz Weirotter (1730-1771), Suite of 12 Views of Italy, etchings, 1759 [most signed in the plate by Weirotter]. Reference: Nagel 5. 10 printed in pairs on one sheet; one on a small...
Category

1750s Old Masters Art

Materials

Etching

Allegory of Fortune
Located in New York, NY
Provenance: S. Spinelli Collection, Florence; their sale, Galleria Pesaro, Milan, July 11-14, 1928, lot 112 (unsold); reoffered Galleria Luigi Bellini, Florence, April 23-26, 1934, lot 132, as manner of Baldassare Peruzzi Dr. Giacomo Ancona, Florence, 1930s, and after 1939, San Francisco; thence by descent to his son: Mario Ancona, San Francisco; thence by descent to his children: Mario Ancona III and Victoria Ancona, San Francisco, until 1995; thence to: Phyllis Ancona Green, widow of Mario Ancona, Los Angeles (1995-2012) Literature: Donato Sanminiatelli, Domenico Beccafumi. Milan 1967, p. 170 (under paintings attributed to Beccafumi) Among the precious survivors of Renaissance secular paintings for domestic interiors are several unusual and particularly attractive panels painted in Siena at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries. These paintings depict exemplary figures from antiquity—heroes or heroines, as well as allegorical, literary, and mythological figures. For the most part, these panels have survived in groups of three, although it is possible that some of these works were painted either as part of larger series or as individual projects. One such trio by Beccafumi consists of two paintings now at the National Gallery, London (Marcia and Tanaquil) and a third in the Galleria Doria-Pamphilj, Rome (Cornelia). These were commissioned around 1517–1519 for the bedroom of Francesco di Camillo Petrucci in Siena and were most likely placed together as elements in the wall decoration (spalliere) or installed above the back of a bench or cassapanca. Another, earlier (ca. 1495–1500), set of three—Guidoccio Cozzarelli’s Hippo, Camilla, and Lucretia (Private Collection, Siena) survives with its original wooden framework—a kind of secular triptych. Judith, Sophonisba, and Cleopatra in the collection of the Monte dei Paschi, Siena, are by an anonymous artist close to Beccafumi called the “Master of the Chigi-Saracini Heroines.” Girolamo di Benvenuto’s Cleopatra, Tuccia, and Portia are dispersed (homeless, Prague, Chambery), and Brescianino’s Faith, Hope, and Charity are in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena. The present painting first appeared in the Spinelli sale in Florence in 1934, at which time it was sold with two panels of identical size and format. Each was catalogued as being by the “manner of Baldassare Peruzzi” and of unidentified subject. Of these, the painting depicting a male figure turned to the right has recently reappeared in a private Italian collection, while the location of the third work, portraying a cloaked figure turned three-quarters left, remains unknown. Our panel depicts the allegorical figure of Fortune. Here she is represented in typical fashion as a nude female figure balanced on a wheel (sometimes called the Rota Fortunae), her billowing drapery indicating that she is as changeable as the wind. The appearance of the Virgin and Child in the cloud at the upper right is an unusual addition to the iconography. The subjects of the two pendant male...
Category

16th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil, Panel

Portrait of an Artist (possibly a Self-Portrait)
Located in New York, NY
Provenance: Bradley Collection. Private Collection, Upperville, Virginia. Literature: Katlijne van der Stighelen and Hans Vlieghe, Rubens: Portraits of Unidentified and Newly Identified Sitters painted in Antwerp, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, vol. 19, pt. 3, London and Turnhout, 2021, under cat. no. 189, p. 161, and fig. 75. This painting had previously been considered to be by an anonymous Tuscan painter of the sixteenth century in the orbit of Agnolo Bronzino. While the painting does in fact demonstrate a striking formal and compositional similarity to Bronzino’s portraits—compare the nearly identical pose of Bronzino’s Portrait of a Young Man in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Fig. 1)—its style is completely foreign to Italian works of the period. That it is painted on an oak panel is further indication of its non-Italian origin. This portrait can in fact be confidently attributed to the Antwerp artist Huybrecht Beuckelaer. Huybrecht, the brother of Joachim Beuckelaer, has only recently been identified as the author of a distinct body of work formerly grouped under the name of the “Monogrammist HB.” In recent studies by Kreidl, Wolters, and Bruyn his remarkable career has been delineated: from its beginnings with Joachim in the workshop of Pieter Aertsen; to his evident travels to Italy where, it has been suggested, he came into contact with Bronzino’s paintings; to his return to Antwerp, where he seems to have assisted Anthonis Mor in painting costume in portraits; to his independent work in Antwerp (where he entered the Guild of Saint Luke in 1579); and, later to his career in England where, known as “Master Hubberd,” he was patronized by the Earl of Leicester. Our painting was recently published by Dr. Katlijne van der Stighelen and Dr. Hans Vlieghe in a volume of the Corpus Rubenianum, in which they write that the painting “has a very Italian air about it and fits convincingly within [Beuckelaer’s] oeuvre.” Stighelen and Vlieghe compare the painting with Peter Paul Ruben’s early Portrait of a Man, Possibly an Architect or Geographer in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in which the sitter holds a compass and wears a similarly styled doublet (Fig. 2). Huybrecht both outlived and travelled further afield than his brother Joachim, who made his career primarily in Antwerp. Whereas Joachim was the main artistic inheritor of their uncle and teacher, Pieter Aertson, working in similar style and format as a specialist in large-scale genre and still-life paintings, Huybrecht clearly specialized as a painter of portraits and was greatly influenced by the foreign artists and works he encountered on his travels. His peripatetic life and his distinctly individual hand undoubtedly contributed to the fact his career and artistic output have only recently been rediscovered and reconstructed. His periods abroad seem to have overlapped with the mature phase of his brother Joachim’s career, who enrolled in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke much earlier than his brother, establishing himself as an independent painter in 1560. Joachim’s activity was confined to the following decade and half, and his latest work dates from the last year of his life, 1574. Our portrait was likely produced in the late 1560s, a dating supported by the dendrochronological investigation performed by Dr. Peter Klein, which established that it is painted on an oak panel with an earliest felling date of 1558 and with a fabrication date of ca. 1566. This painting presents a portrait of an artist, almost certainly Huybrecht’s self-portrait. The young sitter is confidently posed in a striking patterned white doublet with a wide collar and an abundance of buttons. He stands with his right arm akimbo, his exaggerated hands both a trademark of Huybrecht and his brother Joachim’s art, as well as a possible reference to the “hand of the artist.” The figure peers out of the painting, interacting intimately and directly with the viewer, as we witness him posed in an interior, the tools and results of his craft visible nearby. He holds a square or ruler in his left hand, while a drawing compass...
Category

16th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil, Panel

A hound and game in a woodland landscape
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
Hendrick Jan Scholl (1717-1792) A hound and dead game in a woodland landscape Signed "H.J. Scholl pinx 1763" lower right Oil on canvas 46 1/2 x 36 1/4 in ...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil

Figures resting by a fire with a wagon in a wooded landscape
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
Benjamin Barker of Bath (Pontypool 1776-1838) Figures resting by a fire with a wagon in a wooded landscape Oil on canvas 28 x 35 7/8 in 71.1 x 91.2 cm Benjamin Barker, the younger ...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil

Vedute di Roma (3rd state) (Frontispiece of series, with Statue of Minerva)
Located in Chicago, IL
Views of Rome (Vedute di Roma): Frontispiece for the whole series, with Statue of Minerva. A fine impression of the rare 3rd state (of seven) of this m...
Category

Mid-17th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Etching

View of the Ancient Structure built by Tarquinius Superbus called the Bel Lido
Located in Fairlawn, OH
View of the Ancient Structure built by Tarquinius Superbus called the Bel Lido, and like others built by Marcus Agrippa in the time of Augustus when he ...
Category

1750s Old Masters Art

Materials

Etching

Still life of fruit and nuts
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
James Shaw (fl.1769-1784) Still life of fruit and nuts Oil on canvas Canvas Size - 13 1/2 x 17 3/4 in Framed Size - 16 1/4 x 20 1/2 in Born in Sedgley in Staffordshire, it is unclea...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil

Marble relief of a trireme from the Temple of Fortuna, Praeneste, from Vasi
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Marble relief of a trireme from the Temple of Fortuna, Praeneste, from Vasi, candelabri, cippi, sarcofagi, tripodi, lucerne, ed ornamenti antichi disegnati ed incisi dal Cav. Gio. Ba...
Category

1770s Old Masters Art

Materials

Etching

Old Northumberland House, London, c. 1770
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
Herbert Pugh (Ireland Fl. 1758-1788 London) Old Northumberland House, c. 1770 Oil on panel 20 x 30 in (50.8 x 76.2 cm) Provenance An important private collection Born in Ireland he went to England about 1758, and in 1765 when he was living in the Great Piazza, Covent Garden, he obtained a premium of twenty-five guineas from the Society of Arts for a landscape in oil. He was a Member of the Society of Artists and contributed forty-five works to its exhibitions between 1760 and 1776, nearly all landscapes and topographical views, but including 'The Italian and British Quack Doctors', 'The Amorous old Beau' and 'The Procuress'. These were probably of the same nature as two of three pictures done by him in imitation of Hogarth which, says Edwards (Anecdotes of Painting) "are nothing but mere representations of vulgar debauchery". In 1777 he had two works exhibited at 'The Exhibition or Grand Museum of Arts and Sciences at the Great Room, Royal Exchange, Strand. Pugh's intemperate habits hastened his death which took place shortly after 1788. There is a large landscape by him in the Lock Hospital, London and two views of London Bridge were exhibited in the Grosvenor Gallery...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil

Portrait of a young boy holding his pet squirrel
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
Joseph Highmore (London 1692-1780 Canterbury) Portrait of a young boy holding his pet squirrel Oil on canvas Canvas Size - 30 x 25 in Provenance Sale, Sotheby's New York, Old Master...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil

Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist
Located in New York, NY
Inscribed, reverse: Fr Brina Provenance: Private Collection, New Jersey. Francesco Brina was one of the “Studiolo” painters, responsible for the panel of Neptune and Amphitrite in F...
Category

16th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

A Dune Landscape with Figures Resting and a Couple on Horseback, a View of Nijme
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"A Dune Landscape with Figures Resting and a Couple on Horseback, a View of Nijmegen Cathedral Beyond" is a painting by Dutch Old Master painter Salomon van Ruysdael...
Category

1640s Old Masters Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

'Prime Minister' with jockey John Shepherd up, and owner Sir Mark Sykes
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
Henry Bernard Chalon (London 1770-1849) 'Prime Minister' with jockey John Shepherd up, and owner Sir Mark Sykes Signed and dated 'H.B. Chalon pinxit 181...
Category

Early 19th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil

Portrait of a young gentleman, seated beside a tree
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
Attributed to John Downman (1750-1824) Portrait of a young gentleman, seated beside a tree Oil on canvas Canvas Size - 30 x 25 in John Downman was a fashionable portrait painter in the second half of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth. He was born in Ruabon, North Wales, the son of Francis Downman, an attorney of Devonshire stock, and his wife Charlotte, daughter of Francis Goodsend, the private secretary to George I. In 1768 John became a pupil of Benjamin West and the following year attended the Royal Academy Schools. He showed his first portrait at the RA in 1770 and his first subject painting in 1773, exhibiting there until 1819. From 1773-4 Downman, by now married, studied in Rome in the company of Joseph Wright of Derby. By 1777 Downman was living in Cambridge, but the following year set up a studio at Bedford Street, Covent Garden. From 1779-1804 he lived at increasingly fashionable London addresses, including Bond Street, Jermyn Street and Piccadilly. Downman painted few large-scale oil portraits...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil

Venus and Adonis
By Baron Pierre Narcisse Guerin (workshop)
Located in Paris, FR
Baron Pierre Narcisse GUERIN (Circle of) 1774-1833 French Venus et Adonis (Venus and Adonis) Oil on canvas Canvas: 53" high x 39 1/2" wide Frame: ...
Category

19th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Dutch shipping in a choppy sea
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
Charles Martin Powell (Chichester 1775-1824) Dutch shipping in a choppy sea Signed 'CPowell' lower right Oil on canvas Canvas Size - 16 x 19 in Framed Size - 24 x 26 in Provenance: The Parker Gallery...
Category

Early 19th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil

A still life of flowers in an urn with a parrot, melon, pomegranates and figs...
By Aniello Ascione (Naples, news from 1680 to 1708)
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
Aniello Ascione (Naples, fl. 1680-1708) A still life of flowers in an urn with a parrot, melon, pomegranates and figs at its base, a view to an ornamental garden beyond Oil on canvas 59 3/4 x 39 3/4 in Provenance The Alexander Family Collection, Milford House, Co. Carlow, Ireland The latter half of the 17th century and earlier 18th century marked the golden age of Neapolitan still-life painting and Aniello Ascione was one of its most highly regarded exponents. His sumptuous paintings, brimming with fecund produce of the Mediterranean and painted in rich colours, were eagerly sought after by those who wished to decorate their palaces in that city. Naples in the seventeenth century had established a significant reputation and artistic tradition of producing flamboyant and technically excellent still-lifes which had largely been initiated by Caravaggio who, having stated that it required as much effort to paint a good flower piece as a figure subject, helped to revolutionise and eventually abolish the closed attitude to genres of painting. Caravaggio maintained that art was the mirror of nature and his superb Basket of Fruit, now in the Ambrosiana in Milan and painted in 1597, marked the birth of European still-life painting. Throughout the 17th century, Neapolitan still-life painting was founded on the principles demonstrated by Caravaggio and these artists seem to have been the only ones to correctly understand and utilise his ideas. These paintings were noted for their vibrant portrayals of flowers, often in great abundance, fruit and birds done in an elegant and decorative manner. Luca Forte (c.1615- c.1670) was one of the first Neapolitan artists to adopt the Caravaggesque naturalism in this genre of painting and with exceptional creativity sweeping through the city in the 1630s, he was soon followed by Paolo Porpora and Guiseppe and Giovanni Battista Recco and the Ruoppolo family. When Abraham Brueghel arrived in Naples in about 1670, his influence accelerated the transition of the portrayal of still-life to a more baroque style often epitomised by a mass of flowers, cascading over classical objects like water. This more baroque style was taken up by a new generation of painters and one of the first and most prominent of these was Andrea Belvedere (1652-c.1732). He taught Nicola Casissa and other artists working in a similar vein included Gasparo Lopez (called Gasparo di Fiori) d. circa 1732, Paolo Porpora (1617-1663) and Nicola Malinconico (1663-1721). The aforementioned Ruoppolo family were also eminent and Giovan Battista Ruoppolo (1619-1693) instructed the young Aniello Ascione. His pupil became one of the most celebrated representatives of Neapolitan Baroque which combined the traditional naturalism favoured by the city with the new 18th century decorative style. This style proved highly popular with the more secular Neapolitan middle classes as well as the aristocracy and royalty to furnish their grand homes. They loved the harmonious colouring and composition suffused with exuberance Ascione became the most prominent still-life painter in Naples at the transition from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. His paintings, which are often of a significant size, utilise intense decorative colours with an abundance of flowers and piles of fruit such as pomegranates, grapes, peaches, pears, melons and plums. Sometimes these spill down stone steps or are draped or stacked with flowers among classical statuary and there is often a view to a landscape or ornamental garden beyond to give the composition depth. Accompanying the fruit and flowers, Ascione occasionally added parrots, dogs or rabbits and he often signed with a monogram comprised of interlocking As although there are some works signed in entirety. His smaller pieces tended to be more intimate in construction with one looking at just different fruits with some of its foliage so that the different hues and skin textures could interact and to some extent, these reflect the legacy of Abraham Brueghel. One very rare piece, now in the Castellino collection in Naples, is a kitchen interior with a skinned lamb which owes its influence to Guiseppe Recco. There is a fine set of the Four Seasons, which also incorporates putti into the compositions and which are believed to have been contributed by Nicola Vaccaro (1659-1720) the son of Andrea Vaccaro...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil

River Landscape with a Windmill and Chapel
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"River Landscape with a Windmill and Chapel" is a painting by Dutch Old Master Painter, Jan van Goyen. There are traces of a signature on the bow of the boat...
Category

1640s Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil, Panel

Stabled Horses
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
John Ferneley Jnr Stabled horses Oil on canvas Canvas Size - 20 x 24 in Framed Size - 27 x 31 in Born in about 1815 at Melton Mowbray, he was the eldest son of the important sporting artist John E Ferneley. The latters other two children, Claude Lorraine and Sarah, were also artists. He spent his early life at Elgin Lodge and his father was a major influence on his artistic development and was in all probability his sole teacher. His father took him on trips to London and in 1832 to Durham and York where the younger Ferneley later settled in about 1839, probably because of the large number of patrons in the area. His first work, of a Whipping-in, was engraved and published in the New Sporting Magazine in May 1833 and was followed in the next year by an engraving of a Hunter. John E Ferneley had established a significant career as an equestrian artist in the old English tradition largely due to being a pupil of Ben...
Category

19th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil

A Wolf
Located in New York, NY
Provenance: The Marchesi Strozzi, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence Sale, Christie’s, London, May 20, 1993, lot 315, as by Carl Borromaus Andreas Ruthart...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Canvas, Paper, Oil

A dark bay racehorse held by his trainer at Newmarket Heath
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
Benjamin Killingbeck (act. 1769-1783) A dark bay racehorse held by his trainer on a racecourse Oil on canvas Canvas Size - 40 x 50 in Framed Size ...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil

A large wooded river landscape with drovers
Located in Stoke, Hampshire
Benjamin Barker of Bath (Pontypool 1776-1838) A wooded river landscape with drovers Signed and dated 'B.Barker pinxt/ 1807' lower right Oil on canvas 46 x 68 3/4 in (116.8 x 174.5 cm...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Art

Materials

Oil

VEDUTA DEGLI AVANZI De’MAUSOLEI E DELLE FABBRICHE…...
Located in Santa Monica, CA
GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI (Italian 1720-1778) VEDUTA DEGLI AVANZI De’MAUSOLEI E DELLE FABBRICHE…c 1756 (Hind 83; Focillon 20.A.293; Giesecke 116; Wilton-E...
Category

1750s Old Masters Art

Materials

Etching

Old Masters art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Old Masters art available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add art created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of orange, yellow, blue and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Charles Amand Durand, Giuseppe Vasi, Thomas Holloway, and Vincenzo Campana. Frequently made by artists working with Etching, and Paint and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Old Masters art, so small editions measuring 0.4 inches across are also available. Prices for art made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $11 and tops out at $1,495,000, while the average work sells for $546.

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