Lot 2: Antonio Gionima (Venice 1697-1732 Bologna)

The Birth of the Virgin
oil on copper, oval
26.5 x 33 cm. (10 1/2 x 13 in.)

EXHIBITED:
Heim Gallery, London, Autumn Exhibition, 1968, no. 54.

Antonio Gionima was the son of the painter Simone Gionima (1655/6-1730) and was a pupil of Aureliano Milani in Bologna. When Milani left Bologna for Rome in 1719, Gionima entered the studio of Giuseppe Maria Crespi and quickly established himself as his most important follower. Much of Gionima's career remains unclear, but during the 1720s he produced a large number of religious and mythological works on a small format of which the present lot is a prime example.