Old Masters | New Perspectives: Masterworks from The Alana Collection

Christie’s is delighted to present Old Masters | New Perspectives: Masterworks from The Alana Collection featuring a curated survey of Late Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque paintings and sculpture as well as museum-quality Antiquities. Formed with great diligence and expertise over several decades, the Alana Collection comprehensively tells the story of the history and development of Italian art over the course of two millennia through works that are as prescient today as when they were created. A direct line can be drawn between their themes, technique and composition and those of contemporary artists. Despite the disparity of their media, artists like John Currin, Jeff Koons and Bill Viola each in their own way respond to the emotional content and humanity of Renaissance painting, works that Koons has described as ‘celebrating being alive and being human’. Given its contemporary appeal, in 2019-2020 the Collection gained international acclaim when nearly eighty highlights were exhibited at the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris. 

The sale is led by masterpieces by some of the most illustrious artists in the period. Among the sale highlights is a poetic depiction of The Madonna and Child by Orazio Gentileschi. Of equal importance is Fra Angelico’s impactful and beautifully preserved Saint Dominic and the Stigmatization of Saint Francis. The painting, which recently featured in a monographic exhibition held at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, originally formed a diptych with a small panel in the Detroit Institute of Arts. Two further highlights are El Greco’s Portrait of a young man, said to be Saint Luis Gonzaga, one of the few portraits by the artist that remains in private hands, and Bartolomeo Manfredi’s A drinking and musical party, a masterpiece by the most innovative of Caravaggio’s early followers. The sale also includes important paintings by Lorenzo Monaco, Jacopo Tintoretto, Dosso Dossi, Guido Reni and an artist from the Milanese circle of Leonardo da Vinci. Renaissance sculpture is represented by a nearly life-size painted terracotta Madonna and Child by Michele da Firenze, a talented pupil of Lorenzo Ghiberti. Notable Antiquities include a striking Greek gold and garnet strap-necklace, an impressive Greek gold and garnet finger ring with Danae and three ancient carved intaglios formerly from the Georgio Sangiorgi collection.

This sale is brought to you in partnership with The Fine Art Group.