Arts run in the Gallo family and Graziano Gallo started his career in the arts field as a young man, mostly dealing with antique furniture and art works. He founded Gallo Antichità at the beginning of the 1980s, a gallery specialising in Old Master paintings and sculptures from the 16th to the 19th century, and antiques furniture. Over the years, he took part in renowned Italian art fairs: Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Biennale of Florence, the Milan Internazionale, Modena Antiquaria, Gotha in Parma and Padova Antiquaria. In 2003 he started a new career in art consulting aimed at galleries and international collectors. In 2016 he founded a new art dealing venture. Gallo Fine Art, now based in the historical location in Solesino (Padua), where he exhibits a vast Baroque and 18th century artworks, with an emphasis on Veneto and Venetian Masters, including relevant antique furniture. In 2019 he brought together the utterly unique exhibition of Venetian art called “Settecento Veneziano”, which took place at the beautiful Biblioteca Antoniana, an incredibly well preserved gem hidden inside the Basilica del Santo in Padua, home to more than 90 thousand ancient volumes and manuscripts, within a magnificent fresco ceiling by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini.
Among the works on view during the exhibition are outstanding pieces, including the Madonna and Saint Catherine by Jacopo Bassano (1510 – 1592), the Magdalene by Nicolas Tournier (1590 – 1639), a fine still life (Plate of Strawberries, Coffee Pot, Spoons, Glasses, Bread and Tablecloth on a Carpeted Table) by Cristoforo Munari (1667 – 1720), the Bearded Old Man by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682 – 1754), and the Minuet Lesson by Francesco Zugno (1709 – 1787). Completing the selection are the Madonna and Child by Placido Costanzi (1702 – 1759), the Landscape of the Roman Countryside by Jan Frans van Bloemen (1662 – 1749), and Two Heads of Children by Giusto Le Court (1627 – 1679) and Melchior Barthel (1625 – 1672). The variety of styles and subjects offers a curatorial path that combines aesthetic research with historical knowledge, providing a rich and multifaceted cultural experience.
This powerful and dramatic work exemplifies the stylistic versatility of Pietro della Vecchia, an artist who combined the legacy of sixteenth-century Venetian masters with the Caravaggesque influences he absorbed in Rome. The scene depicts Herod presenting the severed head of Saint John the Baptist, flanked by the aged Herodias: an image at once ambiguous and provocative, rendered with vivid colors and a realism that intensifies its emotional tension. The choice of portraying Herod as a “bravo” and the figure of the old woman recall Vecchia’s pseudo-Giorgionesque repertoire, in dialogue with Giorgione’s famous Vecchia at the Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice. Dated to the 1620s–30s, the painting reflects the libertine and transgressive taste of Baroque Venice, likely connected to the milieu of the Incogniti, and stands as one of the most original and theatrical expressions of seventeenth-century Venetian painting.
The painting reflects the portrait style of Jacopo Amigoni, who combined Rococo grace with expressive intensity. The young woman, shown in a direct pose, reveals a vigorous face rendered with soft chromatic blends that enhance her complexion and crystallize her suspended elegance. The ermine, jewels, and floral bouquet emphasize her princely status and festive tone. The work belongs to the phase that secured Amigoni’s international fame between London, Paris, and Madrid, where in 1747 he was appointed primer pintor de cámara to Ferdinand VI. A close friend of the celebrated Farinelli, who promoted his career, Amigoni established himself among the leading interpreters of eighteenth-century European portraiture, alongside Rosalba Carriera and Bartolomeo Nazzari. This portrait, marked by chromatic delicacy and striking immediacy, confirms Amigoni’s stature as a refined and cosmopolitan master of the Rococo.
The painting, accompanied by an entry by Prof. Fabrizio Magani, depicts the episode of Berenice, the Queen of Egypt who sacrifices her hair as a vow of love and fidelity. The scene is rendered with solemn elegance: the young woman presents her cut hair to a priest, described with luminous softness and refined chromatic harmony. The sumptuous draperies and warm golden tones highlight Padovanino’s ability to merge Titianesque suggestions with a fully seventeenth-century language, vibrant and theatrical. The work exemplifies the artist’s distinctive style, as an original interpreter of the great Venetian tradition, capable of blending classicist balance and narrative pathos, securing his place among the leading figures of Baroque painting in Venice.
