Login

Country

Cart

Your cart is empty

Antique Italian School Paintings

About this collection

The Italian School is the painting of the Italian peninsula, the tradition of Rome, Venice, Bologna and Naples that carried the lessons of the Renaissance into the drama of the Baroque and the lighter elegance of the 18th century.

Light and shadow shaped it. Religious and mythological subjects dominate these antique Italian paintings, most of them unsigned and many in period gilt frames. To place these works in their tradition, read about Italian Baroque painting.

Pan and Syrinx, the nymph fleeing the god into the reeds, oil on canvas, 18th century European school, in a carved gilt frame

Italian School, 18th century

Pan and Syrinx, 1700s
$2,900
Ecce Homo after Correggio, Christ crowned with thorns in half length against an olive ground, oil on canvas in an antique ebonised frame

Italian School, 17th century

Ecce Homo, 1600s
$11,000
Large antique 17th century Italian penitent Magdalene with a skull, oil on canvas in gilded frame

Italian School, 17th century

Penitent Mary Magdalene, 1600s
$12,000

Guides · before you buy

How to Read Signatures and Inscriptions on Antique PaintingsA signature is a clue, not a verdict.Read the guideRelined, Restored, Craquelure, Understanding ConditionCraquelure is not damage and relined is not a defect.Read the guide

GalerieClub Fine Art

1,100+

paintings sold since 2017

Poppy Fields, late 1800sSold Poppy Fields, late 1800s Hagar and Ishmael, 1700sSold Hagar and Ishmael, 1700s Penitent Magdalene, 1600sSold Penitent Magdalene, 1600s

Our promise

  • Every painting photographed front and back
  • The frame you see is the frame that ships
  • Free tracked UPS Express Saver to the US

New paintings, by email

A note when new paintings come in. Nothing else.

Elsewhere in the gallery

Antique Italian School paintings

For three centuries Europe learned to paint from Italy. Painters travelled south to study its churches and palaces, and the manner they brought home shaped every other school. An Italian Old Master painting in this collection comes from that tradition, painted in the 17th or the 18th century.

  • The Baroque made faith dramatic. Italian painters of the 17th century lit a single figure against deep darkness, a method called chiaroscuro, from the Italian words for light and dark, so that a face, a hand or a tear carries the whole scene. A 17th century Italian religious painting uses that contrast to hold the viewer's eye on the moment of grief, prayer or revelation.

  • The next century lightened the palette. Myth returned alongside faith, with nymphs, satyrs and the gods of antiquity set in wooded landscapes, and an 18th century Italian painting often trades the Baroque darkness for softer light and a more decorative grace.

  • Most Italian paintings of these centuries carry no signature. Large workshops, pupils and followers worked in the manner of the masters they served, and a work is described here as Italian School with its century, never under a name it cannot support. Our guide to reading an attribution explains how.