The Classic week is taking place at Christie's King Street in London. A week that will end on December 13th is entirely dedicated to the great masterpieces of human history, from antiquity to 20th Century.
The auction offers a wide range of artworks and objects, all pieces that show how the instinct to shape and reformulate our world through art has always been central to society - from powerful marble portraits of the Roman emperors to the first devotional paintings, from the Dutch painters' still lifes to highly refined English silver.
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Black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, watermark crown with letters GAF. 13⅝ x 18⅜ in (34.5 x 46.5 cm).
Sold for £791,250 on 3 December 2019 at Christie’s in London
The standing out items from the catalogue are 6 Giandomenico Tiepolo's drawings belonging to the series dedicated to the character of Pulcinello. A series is composed by a total of 105 sheets, designed towards the end of the artist's life, and dedicated to illustrating the life of this Italian popular theatre character, one of the undoubtedly Tiepolo's greatest artistic success. Another masterpiece is the Guido Reni's painting titled The Allegory of Fortune: a work preserved at the Academy of San Luca in Rome and representing a suspended woman in the mid-air of the globe holding a crown in one hand and a palm tree in another one.
Additionally, there will be two panels by Giovanni di Paolo presented during the Old Masters Evening Sale. The lots by a visionary painter of the mid-fifteenth century from Siena depict the scenes inspired from the Life of Saint Chiara previously belonging to the collection of Harry Fuld. Moreover, the sale will present a remarkable selection of still life paintings signed by some of the leading exponents of this genre; an exquisite flower by Ambrosius Bosschaert, along with splendid examples of Jan Breughel the Elder, Abraham Mignon and Daniel Seghers.
Meanwhile, the book fans will be able to purchase one of the first examples of printed books. For instance, there is "De re militari" (1472) that was a first-ever printed book in Verona. This first edition was also the first book printed with technical illustrations by Italian artists and is also one of the few copies with contemporary colouring. "De re militari" became soon a manual for Renaissance princes and military leaders; Leonardo da Vinci himself owned a copy and used it for his plans while he was the chief engineer of Cesare Borgia. The estimate ranges from 170 thousand to 250 thousand pounds.
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Cover image: Christie's Great Rooms, London Classic Week, Virtual Tour Christies Feature. Courtesy Christie's