Gregory Sciltian - Bathsheba

Bathsheba is a character from the Old Testament. Scripture narrates that King David fell in love with her when he saw her bathing while walking through his palace, so much so that he caused the death of her husband Uriah to win her. The iconography of Bathsheba is quite widespread in Italian painting, especially 16th-century Venetian painting, where a favorite subject is the female nude. Bathsheba is always depicted bathing or, as in this more modern interpretation by Sciltian, engaged in grooming with the help of a servant.

Gregorio Sciltian's style focuses heavily on exalting the plastic qualities of objects. The painter enhances volumes, emphasizes them with drawing, and highlights them with even lighting throughout the composition. In this way, the surfaces appear to be made of some precious, shiny material. Precisely for the purpose of fully exalting plasticity, Sciltian eliminates any pictorial effect, achieving a style that can be described as hyperrealist, in which, however, the study of Caravaggism and Flemish painters also plays a fundamental role.

Gregorio Sciltian, Italianized for Grigoriy Ivanovich Shiltyan (Rostov, 1900 – Rome, 1985), was an Armenian painter. In 1919, following the October Revolution, he left Russia and settled in Constantinople. His style took shape in the 1920s, when he returned to classical figuration, studying the works of the Italian Renaissance at the Academy and in the museums of Vienna. In 1923, he moved to Italy; he opened a studio in Rome and participated in the Second Rome Biennale in 1925. Roberto Longhi presented his solo exhibition at the Bragaglia art house. The critic emphasizes the distinctiveness of a painting style that revisits the Caravaggesque and Flemish traditions with a realism of impressive photographic fidelity: a lenticular perfection achieved with a compact palette and a technique borrowed from ancient painting.

The transaction takes place with maximum security for both the seller and the buyer. We take care of the conformity (provenance, authenticity, state of conservation) of the work and handle the shipping.
Returns are possible no later than 14 days after receiving the order.