cac37

Hi
I hope this is the right place to ask. I bought at an estate sale a very, very old painting. Several centuries at least. I have no idea what it is (well outside of the obvious painting) what school it is from and if there is anything I should do with it (i.e. restore, throw away) The picture is of either the Virgin Mary or a saint with a halo and a couple angels around it. Measures probably 5 x 7 ish (maybe a bit bigger) painted (in what I dont know) on a canvas of some sort. Frame is also ancient wood with intricate carvings and is crumbling. In general the painting itself is in pretty good shape. A couple small places where paint loss has occurred but it mostly would need just a professional cleaning.restoration I think. It came from an estate of a family that had travelled all over the world and had a lot of other nice art and furniture. I attached a couple images but have more and of higher resolution if anyone is interested. Thanks!

Attached Images

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Eirene

It's a religious icon. Mary perhaps, she was often depicted wearing white and blue. Only the righteous were depicted wearing white. Blue is the infiniteness of the sky and is the symbol of another everlasting world. The winged globes represent the fleeting temporarality of life, a reminder that this life is short compared to the eternity that awaits those that are reborn in the Christian faith. It also represents time flying and the cyclic nature of heaven and earth.

This is about all I can contribute to this. Perhaps if you took it to a Catholic church they could identify who it is and the age.

HolyCrap@SaintMarc