LEADING ITALIAN DEALER CARLO ORSI UNVEILS HISTORIC FLORENTINE MASTERPIECE AT TEFAF 2016 Taking pride of place on Carlo Orsi’s stand at TEFAF 2016 will be a vast and impressive oil on canvas of The Death of Filippo Strozzi by the Florentine artist Giuseppe Bezzuoli (1784- 1855), price in the region of 300,000 euro. Carlo Orsi joins other international dealers at TEFAF, the world’s leading art and antiques fair, at the Maastricht Exhibition & Congress Centre (MECC), from 10 to 20 March 2016, Stand 344. The centrepiece of leading Italian dealer Carlo Orsi’s stand at TEFAF 2016 is an impressive oil on canvas of The Death of Filippo Strozzi by the Florentine artist Giuseppe Bezzuoli (1784- 1855), price in the region of 300,000 euro. Commissioned by the philanthropist Niccolo Puccini, this powerful historical painting was known only to a small circle and has never been on public view before. Strozzi (1428-1491) was an Italian banker and statesman banned from Florence as a young man by the Medici because of his family’s opposition to Cosimo de’Medici. It was in Naples that Strozzi established his successful career as a respected banker and when he returned to Florence he commissioned Benedetto da Maiano to build the splendid family home, Palazzo Strozzi, though sadly did not live to see it completed. Puccini, a leading intellectual and supporter of the Risorgimento, found Strozzi’s courage against tyranny a fitting subject with which to endorse his own political leanings. Giuseppe Bezzuoli, The Death of Filippo Strozzi, oil on canvas, 193.5 x 258 cm Visitors to the stand will also have their eye drawn to the jewel-like wooded landscape with Saint John the Baptist by the Flemish master Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625). This splendid oil on copper was executed circa 1595 by the artist towards the end of his travels in Italy and is priced in the region of 1 million euro. While in Italy he focused on idealised landscapes with mythological or biblical themes and the most discerning of his patrons was Cardinal Federico Borromeo, whom he first met in Rome before travelling with him to Milan where he joined the Cardinal’s household. Jan Brueghel the Elder, A Wooded Landscape with St John the Baptist, oil on copper, 25.2 x 33.4 cm A pair of majestic marble busts by the Roman Baroque sculptor Alessandro Rondoni (c.1644- c.1710) of the Marquess Giovanni di Jacopo Corsi (1600-1661) and his son Domenico Maria Corsi (1633-1697), who was appointed Cardinal by Pope Innocenzo XII, flank the entrance to the stand. Recent research in the Archivio Corsi identified the payments to Rondoni for these two busts, which had pride of place in the Villa Corsi in Florence. Such a discovery means that the corpus of works by the artist has been enriched and Rondoni emerges now as a prominent figure in seventeenth century Rome. Alessandro Rondoni, Busts of Domenico Maria Corsi and Giovanni di Jacopo Corsi, both marble, height: 77.5 and 72 cm respectively In contrast to the grandeur of the Rondoni busts is the eighteenth century Neapolitan wax of the severed head – probably of John the Baptist. The extraordinary graphic anatomical detail and intensity of the piece conveys not only a sense of horror but also wonder so typical of the austere religiosity of southern Italy – its immediacy is impossible to ignore (price in the region of 80,000 euro). Neapolitan wax modeller (second half of the eighteenthcentury), Anatomical Head (St John the Baptist?) polychrome wax, hair, glass, 17 x 28 x 20 cm Notes to Editors Carlo Orsi is President of the Associazione Antiquari d’Italia and a member of the Associazione Antiquari Milanesi and of CINOA. He organises exhibitions in the gallery accompanied by scholarly catalogues as well as participating in major art fairs in Italy and abroad. Founded in 1952 by Alessandro Orsi, Carlo took over the gallery from his father in 1986 and specialises in paintings, predominantly by Italian masters, sculpture and works of art. The elegant gallery in a palazzo at 14 Via Bagutta, Milan, is a mecca for collectors, art historians, museum curators, art dealers and enthusiasts from all over the world. www.galleriaorsi.com TEFAF MAASTRICHT 10 – 20 March 2016 Maastricht Exhibition & Congress Centre (MECC) Forum 100 6229 GV Maastricht, Netherlands Should you require further information, please contact [email protected] / M +39 338 26 53 412 .