The only painting by Parmigianino (Francesco Mazzola, Parma 1503- Casalmaggiore 1540) with a mythological subject that has come down to us is Love making the bow , now kept in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The painting represents the young Cupid who, occupying the whole scene and almost protruding from the table, in a tall and narrow format, is intent on making the bow with which he shoots his arrows of love. Cupid is represented not as a child but as a boy of great beauty and sensuality, and the figure conceived by Parmigianino was certainly inspired by the ancient Hellenistic sculptures which represented the young man with his bow. The young man appears from the shadows and turns abruptly, pointing his left leg to support the bow, on two volumes that become only an instrument, to symbolize the triumph of love and desire over reason and knowledge. The two figures that can be glimpsed under Love's legs are identified as Sacred Love/Profane Love or as the pitfalls of unrequited love that Cupid himself will soon appease with one of his arrows. The two putti bicker with each other: the male, while returning the gaze of the observer as if to make him an accomplice in his gesture, squeezes the girl tightly and takes her right wrist as if to direct her to touch Cupid, or to submit to Love.

The emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Rudolf II of Habsburg for over twenty years tried to recover the original to exhibit it together with some other works with mythological subjects that he already possessed. Only at the beginning of the seventeenth century did an intermediary of the emperor Rudolf manage to buy it and the work arrived in Prague in a poor state of conservation; it was then entrusted to the court painter Joseph Heintz the Elder (Basel 1564-Prague 1609) for restoration: it seems that his attempt to restore splendor to the original had not been crowned with success and that shortly after Heintz himself had painted some full-size copies on different supports. The work in the center of the three is a copy made by Heintz the Elder himself, the two on either side are later anonymous copies.

Along with Rudolf II, of all the collectors over the centuries, Franco Maria Ricci is the only one who has managed to obtain more than one version of Cupid making the bow .

The work displayed here is the best known of the versions taken from the original sculpture, a large marble bust with severed arms and legs and a gilded bronze sword fixed in the base. The original sculpture, in the possession of the client and collector Franz Rose, was donated in 1912 to the Neue Museum in Königsberg, but was destroyed during the bombings of the Second World War. The dating of the Vir Temporis Actis has been indicated by scholars, on the basis of documentary information, between 1910 and 1911, when Wildt seems to achieve new results in his sculptures: the twisted delirium of anatomy, the Hellenistic and Baroque triumph, the realistic virtuosity and decorative manage to express the sculptor's will to investigate the collective depths and the irrational. This figure of a scourged warrior draws from the most distant areas of the unconscious and myth, where Wildt develops the theme, already exposed in the Self-Portrait, of self-sacrifice; but more broadly, with the double reference to the hermaphroditism of Christ in the flower-shaped nipples and to his vivifying reality in the symbology of the sword. The title itself, Man of old/of past times , underlines its allegorical value: it is a question of the slave or warrior of an ancient era, a man who painfully becomes aware of his end.

Antonio Canova, the famous sculptor who was the protagonist of the neoclassical age, glorified still alive as the new Phidias, modeled in 1813 two terracotta portraits of Juliette Récamier, the splendid and very rich Parisian whose cultural salon was celebrated, which was opened also to the Italian artist. The lady did not like the works, and the artist, deeply resentful, changed hands on one of the two models only after four years and changed it into a Dantesque Beatrice, in homage to the Tuscan poet whose 500th anniversary was celebrated in 1821. The work in question recovers the face of Beatrice as it is known in another version of the subject, which like this one is characterized by the bold shape of the sloping veil in soft folds and with a strong formal impact: for sculptures like these, Canova envisaged a vision by candlelight only, placed in such a way as to caress the beautiful face of the effigy with the moving flame, to further increase its suggestion. It is well understood, in front of works like this, the influence that the cultured and frozen art of the great sculptor of Possagno exerted on all of Europe.

The painting represents the official portrait of a French noblewoman: it is the effigy of the niece of Cardinal de Richelieu, daughter of his sister Françoise Du Plessis and René de Vignerod, who married the Marquis of Combalet, but soon became a widow. A haughty, cultured woman and patron of men of letters, from 1625 she was lady-in-waiting to Maria de' Medici, a role from which she was relieved by the queen herself due to disagreements with Richelieu, who gave her the duchy of Aiguillon. Very close to her powerful cardinal uncle, according to gossips, upon his death she inherited part of his assets, including the Petit Luxembourg and the Castle of Rueil; from that date he chose to devote himself to good works. This portrait conveys an image of the strong-willed duchess that corresponds to what of her character can be understood from the facts of her life: the direct, attentive gaze, the erect posture attest to a strong temperament, which the kind gesture of handing the biscuit to the dog does not minimal mask. The great artist who painted the portrait was Philippe de Champaigne, who also created the extraordinary Triple Portrait of Richelieu, which he portrayed several times.

The profusion of fabrics seems to allude to the prosperous trade exercised by Antonio Ghidini, officially accredited to the ducal court as a supplier of fabrics and fabrics, who maintained profitable relations with the English warehouse of Booth suppliers in Manchester (which can be seen in the papers at the top left), at the time one of the most important European business families. The floral fabric of the dress sported by the elegant hostess would belong to the Melandri factory, which had factories in the Veneto region, in Lyon and in Spittlefields (London); moreover, the elaborate ribboned bustier seems to be of the Venetian genre. Strengthened by a happy family, Ghidini asked one of the best artists of the Duchy to portray him with his wife and children according to a canon which responds, in the amazing naturalness of the composition with the characters as if caught in a moment of domestic intimacy, to the new direction of painting English, to the conversation pieces that the enlightened bourgeoisie of the time liked so much. Until a few years ago considered by Baldrighi, Ferrari's master, the painting was returned to him thanks to news from the list of works of the Ghidini heirs: "A large painting representing the portraits of the Ghidini family by Pietro Ferrari New lire 110 ”. The work can be dated after 1769 due to the presence in the work of a medallion held by the child with the blue headdress which commemorates, through the portrait, the marriage of Maria Amelia of Habsburg with Fernando di Borbone of that year. Alongside the admirable quality of the portraits, the ease of the poses, the character of serenity that distinguishes the painting, the preciousness of the clothes should be noted, a tribute to the client, in particular that of the wife, a very elegant Lyon silk brocade.

The series of self-portraits by Antonio Ligabue began in the 1940s and, for the most part, were made at San Lazzaro, the neuropsychiatric institute in Reggio Emilia where the artist was hospitalized several times. The self-portrait in question dates back to the end of the 1950s and the artist, known for his wild character, is represented in the foreground, with a white shirt with blue stripes and an open, high neck that frames a deformed and emaciated face, characterized from the deep wounds that he himself inflicted with practices of sacrificial self-mutilation. The look is restless and nervous. Behind him is a countryside landscape with a small church in the distance and some elements that help to accentuate the sense of isolation of the figure: the lonely tree, the only scarecrow and the stylized crow flying alone in the sky. The artist's self-portraits are famous for their obsessive repetitiveness and constitute a veritable diary of a personal history recorded between different emotions, under different moments of self-perception and self-proposal.

The work is marked by a long inscription in a scroll, significant of the meaning that the author wanted to give to this gruesome painting which however refers to a positive message: figurative painting, repeatedly considered extinct, always rises again. The artist's hyper-realistic still lifes are a cross-section of truths of extraordinary acuteness and poetic temperature, rare in the contemporary panorama due to the strong silence with which they impose themselves in a world of shouted and vehement appearances. Bottoni studied at the Brera, and meeting Giorgio De Chirico was fundamental for him; he soon chose to proceed almost as self-taught, studying the ancient masters and techniques; he prepares the colours, the temperas, the oils that he uses to paint on canvas, wood or parchment; he engraves with etching and burin.

The portrait portrays Cardinal Gian Giacomo Millo, trustee of Pope Benedict XIV. The prelate is caught in the act of taking off his biretta with spontaneous immediacy: it could seem like a greeting to the observer or a homage to an eminent personality. The left hand holds a scroll with the painter's dedication. The soft brushstroke fades the white hair that frames the senile face, the slightly flaccid skin is rendered with evidence and technical skill. A thin veil draws the narrow collar around the mozzetta, plumbed on the bust and unexpectedly raised in an elegant wave, outlined by a contour line according to the painter's typical manner. The oval finish of the frame encloses a small and intimate universe made of simplicity, allowing a glimpse of two volumes on the left, a metaphor for the intellectual fervor of a century of great thinkers such as the cardinal. The courtly setting of an official portrait is tinged in Traversi with a domestic atmosphere: the generic formulas of abundant and elegant draperies, columns and refined objects give way to a greater intimacy. Solemn structure and preciousness of the figure, therefore, combine here splendidly with the spontaneity of the gesture and the declared confidence between the portrayed and the painter.