MILAN, ITALY.- Now in its fifth year, MIFAS - Milan International Fine art & Antiques Show – prides itself in centering each of its shows on one dominant theme that casts a memorable light on the event and makes it different from any of the other major international art and antiques venues.
The 2003 exposition - hosted at the famed Palazzo delle Belle Arti ed Esposizione Permanente of Milan, from April 5 through 13 - will illustrate two peculiar aspects of Italian figurative art to a public of discerning collectors and art lovers.
The international art houses have selected, on the one hand, a series of Italian still-life paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries and, on the other hand, a series of paintings, either made on commission for foreign patrons or belonging to large private collections scattered in Europe and the world over that are at long last back here in Milan, for the greater pleasure of Italian and international collectors.
Revisiting Italian still life
The Italian school of still-life painting contributed its own interpretation to the genre, although its production was not very intensive, and drew its inspiration mainly from the Flemish masters. The exposition will pay a due tribute to the latter, with a remarkable basket of fruits by Jacob Van Holsdonck (from De Jonckheere), an acknowledged master of the genre, born in Antwerp in 1582. The banquet table by JuanVan Der Hamen y Leon (Madrid 1596 – 1631) is an invaluable piece of the period made by an artist who reflected in his life and work the union achieved between Spain and Flandres under the rule of the habsburg of Spain (from Claudio Gasparrini).
Still, Italy’s school of still-life painting produced remarkable works, particularly in Lombardy.  As proof of this, the Milan International Fine art & Antiques Show will feature Panfilo Nuvolone, one of the leading figures of Baroque art in Lombardy and founder of a reputed Milanese school of painting. His Tray with Peaches, Melons and Figs will be on display by Silvano Lodi jr., alongside the Composition of Birds, Artichokes and Fruit by the Master of Lombard fruit bowl, an unknown artist who had a great influence on this style.
On display from Carlo Orsi, two - premièred - still lives representing fruits and small countrylife animals by Francesco Londonio (Milan 1723 – 1783). These fine examples of the ‘lesser’ kind of work of Londonio as genre painter  are also notable for the unusual oil-on-glass technique applied.
John Mitchell & Son will present a magnificent and refined Undergrowth, an oil on canvas by Paolo Porpora (Naples 1617 – 1673), and galleria Romigioli  will present two classical bouquets and Park with Large Sculpted Vase and Villa in Background, a still life by Nicolò Stanchi (1623 – 1690).
Italian art goes full circle
Thanks to a number of international galleries present at the exposition, Milan is to welcome home a series of Italian works more noted at the courts of Europe than in their native country.
This is a unique occasion to discover Paolo Panini (1691 – 1765) and his invaluable  Capriccio of Ruins.  Born in Piacenza, Panini became famous in Rome as  the painter of realistic and imaginary vistas of  the capital. He was the first artist to devote his time to the painting of historical ruins, and he showed to a new generation of Italian and French painters how to assimilate the legacy of the Italian Renaissance (from Chaucer Fine Arts).
Florence-born Alessandro Allori (1535 – 1607) was better known under the name Bronzino, as he was the nephew and student of the painter Agnolo di Cosimo Bronzino. Like his illustrious relative, he represented the second period of Florentine mannerism, with its learned sophistication. Portrait of a Young Man is an illustration of the period (from Walpole Gallery).
Dover Street brings us from a private collection in Vienna a splendid Brawl by Pitocchetto (Jacopo Ceruti 1698 – 1767), the Lombard master of genre painting and one of the painters most prized by cognoscenti.
Chaucer Fine Arts exhibits a dazzling bust in marble of Henry Beyle (ie, the writer Stendhal) made by Pompeo Marchesi (1790 – 1858). This sculptor was a disciple of the great Milanese school of sculpture of the 19th century and deserves to be reappraised.
Thanks to A.M. Wager, visitors will  discover the venetian painter Rosalba Carriera (1675 – 1757), a dazzling exponent of the Rococo period. Carriera worked extensively abroad, particularly in Paris and  Vienna, and her fame as a portraitist reached such heights that the King of Poland commissioned her a number of works and that the great and the good  in Venice were so anxious to have their portrait made by her that she could hardly keep up with the orders. Milan International Fine art & Antiques Show is proud to display one of her better works, for the greater benefit of the general public and of the discerning collectors.
The MILANO International FINE ART & ANTIQUES SHOW is organized by Artmediainternational, a fine art and antiques show organization with an enduring reputation as an organizer of major expositions and promoter of restoration works. Operating to the highest standards of artistic and organizational excellence, Artmediainternational has established a pre-eminent cultural and antiques show attracting first-rate exhibitors and visitors from Italy and abroad.