In this context, the Carlo Orsi Gallery (previously interviewed by us) presents a careful selection of masterpieces, including an intriguing panel dating back to the XNUMXth century – currently by an unknown author – representing “The Temptations of St. Anthony” and a very rare oil on panel by Giorgio Gandini Del Grano – the pupil of Correggio who had been commissioned to complete the master's frescoes in the cathedral of Parma after the painter's death – depicting "The allegory of the city of Parma presented to the Virgin".
Furthermore also one of the great masterpieces of the painter from Piacenza Gaspare Landi, whose subject, "Antiochus and Stratonice”, is inspired by Plutarch's Parallel Lives.
"The Temptations of St. Anthony" at the International Antiques Biennial in Florence
The depicting table "The Temptations of St. Anthony" it represents the holy hermit in levitation, attacked by nine demons with horribly hybridized forms.
An analogous version of the subject, referring to the hand of Michelangelo Buonarroti, is currently kept and exhibited at the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth (TX). This, together with the table presented by Orsi attest to the great success of the engraving of the Temptations by Martin Schongauer, as well as the diffusion of the Nordic brand of bestial and dreamlike imagery. An "Anti-Renaissance" developed in the wake of Jheronymus Bosch which runs parallel to the Renaissance of Raphael and Correggio in 500th century Italy, and which in November 2022 will be the subject of an exhibition at the Palazzo Reale in Milan curated by Bernard Aikema, Fernando Checa Cremades and Claudius Salsi.
The paintings by Giorgio Gandini Del Grano and Gaspare Landi
Extremely rare is also the painting of Giorgio Gandini Del Grano, built in 1774 and belonged to the great collector Giacomo Melzi, whose treasures then merged into the Pinacoteca di Brera. This representation can plausibly be connected to a victory of the city of Parma against the Franco-Venetian army which took place in 1521 and has an uninterrupted provenance from the beginning of the 600s when it is recorded in the inventories of Francesco Baiardi, the patron of Parmigiano, author to whom the table was previously attributed.
The canvas of Gaspare Landi instead it anticipates a common theme in the Romantic era, the lovesickness syndrome, and constitutes one of the highest expressions of exempla virtutis, based on the Platonic motif of happiness that arises from love, but which is also supervised by reason. In fact, the scene captures the moment in which the doctor Erasistrato, called by the king of Syria Seleuco to cure his sick son, discovers the cause of the illness: Antiochus' love for his stepmother and father's wife, Stratonice.
Cover artwork: Detail of GIORGIO GANDINI DEL GRANO – Saints Thomas and Hilary present Parma to the Madonna and Child, Blessed Bernardino of Feltre and Saints Elizabeth, John the Baptist, Catherine of Alexandria, Roch, Sebastian and Joseph participate
