An Italian Collecting Journey: 16th–20th Century Paintings and Decorative Arts | The Online Sale17–26 September 2025 • 12:00 PM CEST • Milan
An Italian Collecting Journey tells the story of Italy through its art. Conceived as a cultural voyage, this remarkable private collection explores the evolving identity of Italy as shaped by centuries of artistic creation.
Each piece has been chosen with scholarly rigor and a connoisseur’s eye, demonstrating an appreciation for quality, rarity, condition, and provenance. More than a gathering of exquisite objects, the collection unfolds as a dialogue across time, style, and geography, weaving together paintings, sculptures, porcelain, furniture, and decorative arts into a continuous narrative of creativity and refinement.
An Italian Collecting Journey: 16th–20th Century Paintings and Decorative Arts
The journey begins in Naples, one of Europe’s great artistic capitals. A city of monumental grandeur and vitality, Naples has long been a crossroads of ideas, where exchange and experimentation thrived. It encapsulates many of the themes central to this collection: the interplay between local identity and broader European currents, and the enduring quest for beauty and innovation.
Its striking presence and unforgettable cityscape have captivated painters for centuries. The enduring beauty of Naples is evident in Pietro Fabris’s (1740 - 1792)View of Mergellina and the Palazzo Donn’Anna Beyond, with Fishermen Drawing Their Catch, Peasants Grilling Fish, where different social groups mingle in a moment of conviviality, as well as in the dramatic vistas of Giovan Battista Lusieri’s (Rome 1755 – 1821) Eruption of Vesuvius at Night and Orazio Grevenbroeck’s (Milan 1676–1739 Naples) evocative Veduta of Naples from the Sea.
The enchantment and representation of the city and of the Vesuvio extend across diverse materials and techniques, ranging from volcanic commesso top and scagliola tables to refined porcelain services presented in the online sale.
This Italian specimen marble table top from late 18th century, was conceived in the spirit of the Wunderkammer Naturalia, it reflects both the scientific curiosity of the age — volcanology, mineralogy, and geology — and the souvenir culture of Naples, the Grand Tour capital, where travelers were drawn to the sublime fascination of ascending the volcano. Comparable pieces were collected by Sir William Hamilton, British Ambassador to Naples under King George III, whose celebrated cabinet combined scholarly inquiry with aesthetic refinement.
Alongside these explorations of nature, the collection also turns to artificialia: rare and precious materials transformed by the hand of the craftsman into objects of wonder. Among the highlights is a Neapolitan gold and tortoiseshell piqué casket from the late 18th century, a superb example of a technique in which the city excelled; a coral and gilt-copper tazza from Trapani, late 17th / early 18th century, reflecting Sicily’s mastery in coral carving; and several works inlaid with mother-of-pearl, presented in the online sale. Equally remarkable is a Florentine porcelain coffee pot with red iron and parcel-gilt relief decoration, Carlo Ginori manufacture, Doccia, circa 1745–50, delicately adorned with prunus flowers.
This journey through Italy’s artistic excellence reaches a pinnacle of virtuosity with a pair of micro-carved reliefs, masterpieces of Italian sculpture. Remarkably, five comparable examples, closely related to the present pair, once formed part of the celebrated Wunderkammer of Carlo III Farnese, King of Naples (1716–1788), and are today preserved in the Capodimonte Museum in Naples.
In the same spirit of curiosity that shaped the great Wunderkammern, where rare specimens and works of art from across the globe were brought together, this sale features a selection of pieces that reflect Europe’s enduring fascination with the arts of Orient. From the 17th century onwards, the taste for adapting and reimagining objects inspired by China, India, Japan and Islam spread throughout Europe, and in Italy it found expression across every medium, blending distant influences with local artistry.
Highlights include a lacquered and parcel-gilt cabinet-on-stand from Turin; two marble pagoda figures by the Venetian Giovanni Bonazza (1654–1736) and a painted terracotta magot; and, of Chinese inspiration, a pair of Sicilian vases from the Duca di Sperlinga Factory. Commissioned by one of Palermo’s foremost aristocrats to furnish his villa. Duca di Sperlinga during his frequent visits to Naples, engaged Neapolitan craftsmen to work for his manufactory and these vases exemplify the real cosmopolitan spirit of Italian noble collecting.
These works illustrate how Italian noble collecting functioned both as an expression of refinement and as a symbol of prestige, with aristocratic patrons commissioning exceptional creations to embellish their palaces and villas. Among the highlights are a glazed terracotta stemma of the Pitti family from the Workshop of Andrea della Robbia; an armorial tapestry with the Medici coat of arms; and a silver wine cooler from the Borghese service by Pietro Paolo Spagna, circa 1830. The online sale further presents a distinguished group of porcelain with family armorials, including a cup from the celebrated service commissioned by Marchesa Laura Marana-Isola; a rare Cozzi hot milk jug and cover made for the Grimani family, circa 1765–1770; and an exceptional beaker and saucer from the 1742 Brignole service, of which only five examples are known to survive.
From the grandeur of aristocratic commissions, our journey turns to Venice—a city at the crossroads of East and West, where artistic production reflects both an openness to foreign influences and a mastery of its own enduring traditions. The sale presents vedute of Venice, transporting the viewer into the city’s luminous canals and shimmering lagoon light; a rare Renaissance maiolica by Maestro Domenego, circa 1560–1570, with vivid colors and intricate decoration; and a Venice-Saracenic brass engraved armorial charger from the early 16th century, showcasing the city’s exceptional metalworking craft, enriched by the dialogue with Islamic traditions. Also featured are delicate Murano glass mirrors and a finely crafted glass tazza, and an exceptional teapot by Vezzi, circa 1725, a pioneering example of Venice’s artistic innovation.
Our journey continues to Rome, the heart of the Papal States and for centuries a world capital of the arts. Here, the Baroque naturalism pioneered by Gian Lorenzo Bernini found expression in works of extraordinary vitality. That spirit lives on in a rare and playful piece modeled as a tree, from the Bernini workshop and attributed to Johann Paul Schor (1615–1674).
In this period, furniture reached its highest expression, often merging seamlessly with sculpture. A striking example is the pair of painted and carved giltwood armchairs attributed to Nicola Carletti. The same naturalism flourished in painting, as seen in the still life by Michelangelo del Campidoglio (1610–1670).
The collection also pays tribute to naturalism in the art of pietre dure, with its intricate mosaics of precious stone. Outstanding among them is an oval panel by Enrico Bosi, circa 1860, a work of remarkable delicacy and refinement.
At the same time, Rome—revered as the capital of antiquity and an open-air museum where centuries of archaeological discoveries continually revived the taste for the ancient—was shaping the classical canon of beauty. This enduring fascination is reflected in the sale, with a refined selection of works from Rome and Naples, the great centers of excavation and scholarship. Highlights include 18th- and 19th-century bronzes, such as a pair of busts after Canova attributed to Gioseppe Boschi, circa 1815, and a bronze bust after the antique by Francesco Righetti (1749–1819), renowned bronzist of Antonio Canova. Also represented are biscuit sculptures by Giovanni Volpato, Canova’s friend and protector, executed circa 1786–1800, depicting the Barberini Faun, alongside silver pieces inspired by classical forms, such as a double-handled coffee pot by Giovacchino Belli after a design by Giuseppe Valadier, circa 1795.
The enduring passion for antiquity brings our journey to its conclusion with a leap into the 20th century with Vincenzo Gemito’s (1852-1929) bronze sculpture partly inspired from the bust of Antinous in the Vatican Museums, Rome. An exquisite globular vase by Gio Ponti titled La Venatoria – Trasporto del Daino, Manifattura Richard Ginori, created after 1928. These works remind us that the dialogue between past and present has always shaped Italian art, continuing a tradition of beauty and innovation across the centuries. They stand as a testament to the enduring creativity of Italian artists and craftsmen, whose ability to reinterpret history has kept their work relevant, admired, and collected throughout the world.
Gabriele Reina: An Expert View on the Heraldic Collection
The refined collection that Sotheby's is offering at the close of this summer season is characterized by a distinctive feature: it unfolds as a journey within the auction itself. Many lots are adorned with coats of arms, a sign of ownership. Many are traceable and identified with families that not only played a major role in history, but were also eminent and, above all, discerning patrons of the arts: Grimani, Morosini, Farnese, Medici, Frescobaldi, Borghese. Therefore, they are synonymous with excellence and assured taste. The presence of armorial bearings at auctions could be defined as a kind of “branding ante litteram,” as it increases a lot's value, especially from an emotional perspective. These intricate emblems were applied to the most diverse objects: from monuments to fabrics, from furniture to jewelry. The purpose of crests could be summarized as follows: to convey far more than mere decoration. Indeed, their recognition allows every collector's dream to come true. Because they denoted individuals, authorities, and their place in society, heraldic effigies represent a kind of "microchip"; knowing how to decipher it not only increases their value but also allows one to trace their origins back in time.
Among the most interesting pieces in this auction, I would particularly highlight a stunning majolica adorned with the coat of arms of the Pitti family, the second most influential dynasty after the Medici during Florence’s golden age. Also noteworthy are some silver pieces adorned with the coat of arms of the Borghese family, one of the greatest collectors of all time. Among the strangest and most compelling items, worthy of careful study, is a rare travel document holder; it bears the Portuguese royal coat of arms and should pique the curiosity of museums and connoisseurs both in Portugal and overseas.
The coat of arms is the key to tracing the history of the artwork; it allows one to trace a painting, or a piece of furniture not only to a specific era, but also to a specific patron, thus to a collection, or even to the palace, church, or castle where it was originally kept. Because the coat of arms is a graphic element that embodied an identity, revealing the owner behind the symbol. Originating in feudal military circles, they spread throughout medieval society and became hereditary communicative messages for families, cities, kingdoms, universities, and merchants. Not only that, heraldry—this boundless visual lexicon, this shorthand of history—was a language of enormous visual impact, understood by all for centuries, even one of the languages on which European civilization was based and familiar to everyone, regardless of their position in the social hierarchy.
For a long time, the presence of coats of arms in art was not only underestimated but even relegated to a mere detail for scholars, or a romantic image of the Middle Ages and the chivalric values celebrated by Dante, Petrarch, Ariosto, and Shakespeare. On the contrary, the sight of a coat of arms should quickly raise questions in us. It should also bring to mind the celebrated words of Federico Zeri: the history of art is composed of cultural layers that gradually build upon others, burying in oblivion symbols and meanings of the past that perhaps were still decipherable a generation earlier. Therefore, the stranger a detail in an artistic artifact, the more it deserves study. I would say it is even more striking in the case of heraldic emblems.
Ultimately, these emblems are not mere ornaments but vital keys to understanding history, art, and identity—bridges between past and present that continue to enrich the collector’s gaze.
Stay informed with Sotheby’s top stories, videos, events & news.
Receive the best from Sotheby’s delivered to your inbox.
Sell with Sotheby's
Sell with Sotheby's
Curious to know if your item is suitable for one of our upcoming sales? Provide information and share images to request an online estimate now.
