Pair of Italian School Laid Paper Murals After Raphael

Included here are two stunning, Italian School mural paintings from the late 18th to early 19th century, created on laid paper after the fresco murals that decorate the ceiling vaults and spandrels in the garden loggia in the Villa Farnesina in Rome Italy. Method is watercolor, bodycolor (gouache) with pen and ink. Chain lines are noticeable on verso. Each show extraordinarily fine detail throughout. Old glazed frames have protected these works for at least one hundred years. We've photographed one painting inside its frame. The other was removed from its frame (which is identical to the other) for photography. Both are in very good condition with light foxing visible on the front. Frames measure 12 3/8" by 26 5/8" and the sheets each measure approximately 14 1/4" by 28 1/2". Each appears to have been trimmed slightly and they may have originally been joined or come from a larger work. They may have been intended to serve as wallpaper borders, or simply created as individual works of art. We have been told by an experienced collector that these paintings may be by Klotilda (Clothilda) Breilmaier, whose paintings reside in the Vatican collection. The Villa Farnesina one of the most important Renaissance villas in all of Italy due to its architectural and artistic influences. Located in Via della Lungara in the central district of Trastevere in Rome, it was built between 1506 and 1510 by Agostino Chigi, a rich Sienese banker and treasurer to Pope Julius II. Chigi commissioned the fresco decoration of the loggias by some of the most important artists of the period, including Raphael, Sebastiano del Piombo, Giulio Romano, Il Sodoma, and Giovanni da Udine. Artistic themes in the loggia were inspired by the Stanze of the poet Angelo Poliziano, a member of the circle of Lorenzo de Medici. Raphael's frescoes depicting the classical and secular myths of Love and Psyche are the loggia's best-known decorations and thus the corridor has become known as the Loggia di Psiche (Loggia of Psyche). Depicted in each painting here are two archways with three triangular panels above created by incredibly intricate garlands after the loggia decorations by Giovanni. In the first painting, the center panel depicts Cupid pointing out Psyche to the Three Graces from the fresco by Raphael. In the second painting, the center panel depicts Venus pointing out Psyche to Cupid, also by Raphael. The only major auction sale we've uncovered of such Italian School murals occurred at Christie's in New York on 10/14/94 in the auction of Fine English and French Furniture and Objects of Art from the Prime Residence of Henry Francis du Pont at Winterthur. In this auction lot 399, a group of eight murals (of roughly identical size, design, condition and quality to our two murals) was offered with an estimate of $8,000- $12,000 and sold for $20,800 ($2,600 per mural). Please let us know if you have any questions or comments. Additional images forwarded upon request. ( bschussel )