Italian School - Early 20th Century - signed "Raul G..." - Winged Cupid - Eros - Circa 1900

I was getting ready to close the deal on the Italian drawing listed below when I spotted this little cutie on sale by the same Rome Gallery. My one and only grandson just celebrated his first birthday last month (three beautiful sisters to keep him on the straight and narrow... nothing like a pack of older sisters to beat up a bully) and this drawing just made me smile and reminded me of him. I sent a low ball offer for the drawing and now it is on it's way with the other drawing. It is partially signed by an unknown artst "Raul G......" and dates from the early 20th century, circa 1900 according to the Gallery. In Roman mythology, Cupid, the god of desire, is most often depicted with a bow and arrow (He's carrying a beautiful bow), not a ball, so the figure standing with his foot on a ball is somewhat mysterious. While the myth of Cupid and Psyche involves Cupid accidentally scratching himself with his own arrow, there's no mention of him playing with or using a ball in his stories. His primary tools are his arrows, which can inspire love or aversion depending on their tip (gold or lead)(In regards to my ex-wife, cupid definitly hit me with a lead tipped arrow). Enjoy!

Italian School - Late 19th - Early 20th Century - Seated Male Nude

Today I was doing my usual rounds looking for that elusive academic drawing gem when I spotted this unsigned but truly magnificant drawing of a seated male nude. Unfortunately the work is unsigned but comes from an Italian Gallery in Rome! Fingers crossed I can this beauty past Italian customs and into my collection. My luck when buying from Italian sellers has been a real hit or miss proposition. (More miss than hit). What captivated my eye (what's left of them) was the detail in hatching and cross-hatching to bring life to that figure. My attention deficient disorder would have kicked in ten minutes after applying the first application of that detail hatching and I would have been headed for a padded cell somewhere. My "fun money" for the month was exhausted so I had to set out in the torrential rain today and trade in a tenth ounce of gold to buy it. I have enlarged some of the illustrations so that you can see the fantastic skills of this very talented classically trained artist. Enjoy.