Antonio Mercurio Amorosi

Antonio Amorosi (Comunanza 1660-1738) A boy holding a plate with bread, in an interior; and A boy with a bird's nest in a landscape oil on canvas laid down on board; and oil on canvas 15 5/8 x 12 1/8 in. (39.7 x 31 cm.); 16 x 13¼ in. (40.7 x 33.7 cm.) two (2) James Templeton Harricks, Dublin.

Antonio Mercurio Amorosi (Comunanza 1660-1738) A peasant girl; and A peasant boy oil on canvas the first, 23½ x 18 in. (59.6 x 45.7 cm.); the second, 23¾ x 18 1/8 in. (60.3 x 46 cm.) a pair (2) A Roman painter who executed occasional altarpieces and public commissions, Amorosi trained with Giuseppe Ghezzi and worked primarily as a genre painter who specialized in paintings of rustic children and romantic youths. Early sources state that Amorosi's first genre scenes were commissioned by Juan Francisco Pacheco Tellez, Duke of Uceda (1649-1718), and date from the beginning of the eighteenth century. Amorosi became increasingly attracted to a circle of anti-academic artists who were excluded from official circles and opposed to the Academy, but his portraits of youth nevertheless brought him officially recognized success. Paintings such as the present pair depicting pretty peasant children playing musical instruments belie their own sophistication; despite their unassuming naturalism, they reflect the ideals of the intellectually advanced Arcadian movement prevailing in early eighteenth-century Roman poetry.

LOT 172 PROPERTY FROM AN ESTATE ANTONIO MERCURIO AMOROSI COMUNANZA, ASCOLI PICENO 1660-1738 A BOY WITH A JUG 10,000—15,000 GBP oil on canvas LITERATURE AND REFERENCES M. Heimbürger, Bernardo Keilhau detto Monsù Bernardo, Rome 1988, p. 142, fig. 103 (as by Amorosi). CATALOGUE NOTE A copy of the present painting was offered Milan, Sotheby's, 14 December 1995, lot 592.

Antonio Mercurio Amorosi (Communanza 1660-1738) The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, also known as The Madonna della pappa oil on canvas 44.8 x 36.4cm (17 5/8 x 14 5/16in). Footnote: The present work follows Francesco Vanni's original composition, offered at Christie's New York, 24 January 2003, lot 84.