Gaetano Gandolfi

Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 27 January 2000, lot 136;

Acquired subsequently by the present owner.

This delightful canvas is a study by Gaetano Gandolfi for two young wedding guests in his monumental masterpiece The Marriage at Cana, signed and dated 1775, in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna.¹ Preserved in exceptional condition, it displays all the hallmarks of his mature style: dynamic and fluid brushstrokes, beautifully-worked impasto and bright colouring. In his monograph on Bolognese painting, Renato Roli tantalisingly suggests that the young woman in the present work may be a portrait of the artist's young wife, Giovanna Spisani.² This claim, however, is rooted in oral tradition and remains unfounded.

An autograph replica of this work, of arguably lesser quality, was offered for sale at Finarte, Rome, on 12–13 December 1973, lot 40.³ Among other oil sketches for The Marriage at Cana are: Head of a Man in Oriental Costume in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles;⁴ a study for the figures of the two servants at the far right, in a private collection, Bologna;⁵ and a modello of the entire composition in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.⁶

We are grateful to Donatella Biagi Maino for endorsing the attribution to Gaetano Gandolfi on the basis of digital images. Furthermore, she praises the work’s high quality.

¹ Inv. no. 1468; oil on canvas, 530 x 679 cm.; https://www.pinacotecabologna.beniculturali.it/it/content_page/item/175-nozze-di-cana

² R. Roli, Pittura Bolognese 1650–1800. Dal Cignani ai Gandolfi, Bologna 1977, p. 128.

³ D. Biagi Maino, Gaetano Gandolfi, Turin 1995, p. 370, no. 100, fig. 113, reproduced (as current whereabouts unknown).

⁴ Inv. no. M.82.199; oil on canvas, 48.3 x 35.4 cm.; https://collections.lacma.org/node/242766

⁵ Biagi Maino 1995, p. 370, no. 99, fig. 114, reproduced.

⁶ Inv. no. 37.1919; oil on canvas, 86.2 x 112 cm.; https://art.thewalters.org/object/37.1919/

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