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Bartolomeo Rizzo. Passion for beauty

Bartolomeo Rizzo, a passionate antiquarian and attentive connoisseur for over fifty years, transformed his gallery into a real point of reference for the Palermo collecting world, cultivating relationships with enthusiasts, dealers, scholars and all the intellectuals of the time, from Sciascia to Guttuso.
In the large section dedicated to him in the catalogue of Furniture, Paintings, Sculptures and Art Objects that will be exhibited in Genoa on 29 and 30 March, three objects of great charm stand out, all of them on free offer. They fully demonstrate his taste: the first is a late 17th century Sicilian console in carved, sculpted and gilded wood (lot 41). Its line and rich carving show a strong influence from Bernini’s Baroque models. The rampant eagles with outstretched wings are reminiscent of some drawings by a well-known Palermitan ornamentist, Giacomo Amato (1643 – 1723), trained in the Eternal City and then active in the Sicilian capital in the service of two viceroys: the Duke of Uzeda (from 1687 to 1696) and Pietro Colon, Duke of Verguas (from 1696 to 1701). The second is a pair of monumental angels in sculpted, carved and gilded wood from the Veneto area (lot 247), which stand out for their outstretched wings and rich drapery. The third is a large and rare 17th-century Palermo library in sculpted, lacquered and silvered fir with an architectural shape and composed of nine distinct modules (lot 353).