For the second edition of Tefaf Maastricht online we are presenting three works intended for collecting. An ivory perspective box, inside an ebonized case, bears the high relief of Saint Agnes at the stake by Dominikus Steinhart, a German artist in the service of the Colonna princes in the golden age of Berninian and Baroque Rome. The surprising gilded bronze inserts, the flames and the rays of divine light embellish the martyrdom scene characterized by intense pathos with chromatic and illusionistic effects.
Among the reductions in other materials of the famous Canovian sculptures, the Monument to Maria Christina of Austria stands out for its preciousness and masterful execution, executed in small size, in marble and gilded bronze, by the Roman goldsmiths and bronzers Gioacchino and Pietro Belli, in the same proportion of a fortieth of the three magnificent triumphal arches executed under the protection of Canova and purchased by George IV of England (Royal collection).
The Elegiac motif by Cesare Laurenti constitutes a significant text of Italian symbolism. A sentimental head, portrayed in profile lying on itself and in relation to the pre-Raphaelite figurative motifs, stands out against a desolate landscape through a material pictorial technique that goes beyond the divided color, maintaining the expressive value of the ductus.
