Mauro Gandolfi

Private collection, Bologna;
European Private Collection

Venice, San Giorgio Maggiore, I Gandolfi, Ubaldo, Gaetano e Mauro, 1987, p. 63, no. 86, reproduced fig. 86

L. Bianchi, I Gandolfi, Rome 1936, p. 100; 
P. Bagni, I Gandolfi, Affreschi Dipinti Bozzetti Disegni, Padua 1992, p. 14, no. 10, reproduced

Hinged on three corners to a backing board laid on a wooden stretcher. The drawing is overall in good condition. Some very slight beige foxing, to the left towards the margin, and at the top and bottom. The media fresh.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This exquisitely finished self-portrait shows the youthful artist seated on a stool, holding a guitar, with a canvas to the right, and his palette and brushes over a wooden table in the background.  As first suggested by Corinna Giudici in the catalogue of the 1987 Venice exhibition, this very handsome self-portrait could have been intended to be engraved, although no corresponding print is known.  The composition is, however, closely related to Mauro's painted self-portrait in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna (fig.1), which can be dated around 1787, when Mauro was only twenty-three years old, and was working in his father Gaetano's studio in Palazzo Bentivoglio, Bologna.  Both portraits, painted and drawn, are extremely accomplished, and are also witnesses to Mauro's passion for music.  Stylistically, though, they are quite different and although they share the same composition the drawing must date from a later period. 

In technique, the drawing is very close to a number of sheets characterized by extremely refined modelling and high degree of finish, in which Mauro demonstrates to the full his extraordinary skill in the use of this miniaturist technique (see, for example, lot 132).  Most of Mauro’s highly finished, miniaturist works of this type are executed on vellum, and must have been created for sophisticated collectors who thought of them almost as paintings, but the present self-portrait is drawn on paper. It must date from the period of Mauro’s visit to Paris between 1801 and 1805, or just after.  He had chosen to go to Paris to perfect his skill as a watercolor painter by copying famous paintings, but also sought to master his technique as an engraver.  In this sheet Mauro imitates the effect and nuances achieved by mezzotints with their soft sfumato effect.  

The Gandolfi – Ubaldo (1728-1781), Gaetano (1734-1802) and his son Mauro – were eclectic and fashionable painters, influential not only in their Emilian milieu but also in the North of Italy.  They were a synthesis of a earlier Bolognese traditions and of Venetian, Lombard and Roman art.  They worked in a very distinctive, refined style and used an attractive palette of colors. In their drawings, as we can easily see in the present sheet, their dexterous draftsmanship reveals that they were true 'virtuosi'.

See also lots 131, 132 and 138.