Next Oct. 29, Florence will host a major event for the art market: the Pandolfini auctions dedicated to Old Master Paintings and Works of Exceptional Artistic Historical Value will present a selection of works from the private collection of Francesco Molinari Pradelli, a well-known 20th-century conductor. The collection of the maestro, who was born in Bologna in 1911 and died in 1996, is distinguished by its careful selection of Italian masterpieces from the 17th and 18th centuries. Francesco Molinari Pradelli is remembered for his interpretations of internationally renowned sopranos and tenors, including Luciano Pavarotti and Maria Callas, but his passion for art translated into a collection that reflected a refined taste and meticulous attention to Italian painting. Among the most important works up for auction is Giuseppe Nuvolone’sAllegory of Poetry, known for its harmonious tonal quality and luminous atmosphere that led historian Roberto Longhi to refer to it as “Blue Nuvolone.”
Molinari Pradelli’s predilection for Bolognese painting finds further confirmation in UbaldoGandolfi’s Academic Nude. The work, conceived as an exercise for collectors and enthusiasts, synthesizes the influence of Carracci’s macchia and the material richness derived from his encounter with Venetian painting. Another highlight of the collection is La Piscina Probatica by Jacopo Negretti, known as Palma il Giovane, which testifies to a period in the artist’s career marked by an orientation toward realism and naturalism in the Venetian context.
The session devoted to works of exceptional artistic historical value will follow the one reserved for ancient paintings, spanning a chronological span from the 15th to the 18th century. Many works come from prestigious private collections and include masterpieces such as a Madonna and Child by Bernardino Zaganelli (estimate €40,000/60,000) and a Madonna and Child with Saints by the Master of the Adoration of Ferrara. Other notable pieces include the Deposition of Christ in the Sepulcher with Saints and Saints, made in the workshop of Sandro Botticelli in the 1590s. The canvas, tracked down by the Pandolfini department in a Milanese collection, had been out of the public circuit for more than 50 years after passing through the hands of Vittorio Cini.
The Italian seventeenth-century school is represented by authors such as Giovanni Battista Spinelli and a series of three paintings by Astolfo Petrazzi, as well as a Saint Catherine of Alexandria attributed to a French painter of the first quarter of the seventeenth century and a work by the so-called Master of Baranello, considered among the best achievements of Caravaggio’s painting. Also among the most striking works is a large Battle by Salvator Rosa, virtually unseen and never exhibited live in the last 100 years. The auction will close with works by Sebastiano Ricci, Giacomo Francesco Cipper known as the Todeschini, and a view of the flooded Piazza Navona, painted in the early 19th century. The exhibition of works in the catalog will be available to the public in Milan, at the Via Manzoni venue, from Oct. 16 to 18, and then in Florence from Oct. 25 to 28, allowing enthusiasts and collectors to take a closer look at masterpieces that cover a wide span of time and style in Italian painting.
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| Florence, Pandolfini's auction of antique paintings from the Molinari Pradelli collection |
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