Lot 1594 Dα

Both Prof. Daniele Benati and Prof. Donatella Biagi Maino have, independently of each other, attributed this wonderfully preserved work, previously unknown, to the Bolognese painter Ubaldo Gandolfi.
Ubaldo Gandolfi came from one of the most productive families of artists in the 18th century, including his sons Giovanni Battista and Ubaldo Lorenzo, as well as his brother Gaetano and his nephews Mauro, Democrito and niece Clementina. Together, "the Gandolfi" are among the last representatives of traditional Bolognese painting, which had begun almost two centuries earlier with the Carracci.
Ubaldo Gandolfi – who, significantly, was particularly appreciated by Anton Raphael Mengs – is an artist of the transition from the playful Rococo to the more formal Neo-Classicism. In addition to larger compositions, he created a great number of bozzetti and head studies, allegorical figures and character heads, which are among his most beautiful works. Female nudes from his hand, on the other hand, are comparatively rare (e.g. a group of drawings in the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna or another in the Fondazione Cini in Venice). Painting from female models was not permitted in the Bologna Academy. Ubaldo, however, had the good fortune to be married to the beautiful Rosa Spisani since 1761. She patiently posed for him and, as Donatelli Biagi Maino was able to determine, also for the work presented here. She compares the sitter with two other works by Ubaldo in which she can be identified with certainty. One is a study in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and the other is privately owned. (For the former, see: Exhibition catalogue: Gaetano e Ubaldo Gandolfi. Opere scelte, catalogo della mostra a cura di D. Biagi Maino, Cento 2002, p. 84). The author published the second work as early as 1990 in her monograph on the artist (D. Biagi Maino, Ubaldo Gandolfi, Torino 1990, fig. 83). Later, this painting, in which the wife is shown dressed, appeared at auction (Christie's, London 10.12.2004, lot 112).
We would like to thank Prof Donatella Biagi Maino for her assistance in cataloguing this painting.