- 110
Gaetano Gandolfi
Description
- Gaetano Gandolfi
- The triumph of Venus
- Red chalk heightened with white chalk
Provenance
Exhibited
Literature
D. Biagi Maino, Gaetano E Ubaldo Gandolfi, Opere scelte, exhib. cat., Cento, Auditorium di San Lorenzo, 2002, p. 96, under no. 32
Catalogue Note
The first of the two paintings to which Mauro refers, "painted for a Muscovite" on the basis of the drawings in question, is now in a private collection, Brussels1, while the second was on the art market in 2010.2 Two bozzetti relating to the same paintings are also known. These were first published by Carlo Volpe, and were included in the important exhibition, Il Settecento emiliano, La Pittura, held in Bologna, Palazzi del Podestà e di Re Enzo, in 1979.3
Of the two paintings, the composition of the Birth of Venus is the most successful and coherent and it is interesting that Mauro, in his account of the drawings, gives a much more detailed and complete description of this composition than he does of the Bath of Diana. One might, perhaps, conclude that he favoured the present drawing over its former companion, which is now lost.
1. Biagi Maino, op. cit., 2002, cat. no. 32
2. Sale, New York, Christie's, 27 January 2010, lot 29
3. Biagi Maino, op.cit., 1995, cat. nos. 120, 122, reproduced figs. 136, 137