Gaetano Gandolfi

William Gwinn Mather, for whom purchased by Charles A. Platt, circa 1907/08;
Thence by descent.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This marvelous painting is in unusually good condition. The canvas has never been removed from its original stretcher, which in itself is highly unusual. Although the paint layer is lightly and evenly cracked, particularly noticeable in the upper left, it is completely stable and has most likely never been cleaned. There is a small dent resulting from some debris behind the stretcher bar in the lower center and a slightly bloomed patch in the lower right corner. However, great care should be taken to retain the freshness and purity of the condition. In theory hardly any retouches, if any at all, will be required. The condition is excellent.
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This painting, unpublished, unlined, and in the Mather collection for the last century, is an exciting and beautiful addition to Gandolfi's known oeuvre.  It depicts a scene set at a classical banquet, with the figure of an irate king striding towards a table at which his queen and others are seated.  While its iconography is as yet not fully clear, it would appear to most likely represent the banquet of Esther.

This beautiful picture would appear to be a highly finished modello by Gandolfi for an unknown subject picture.  The artist produced these freely painted, but highly finished, preliminary canvases, often of a reasonably large size, from early on (see for example the Vision of Saint Jerome in a private collection, London that he painted at the very beginning of his career as a study for an altarpiece of 1757 still in situ in the Oratorio del Suffragio, Bazzano).¹  This banqueting scene, however, would appear to date to much later, from Gandolfi's full maturity, most probably the 1790s.  The scale of the figures and their placement in the (somewhat jarringly positioned) architectural schema, relate to other pictures of this moment, including the Institution of the Eucharist (San Lorenzo, Budrio) and the Christ in the House in Simon the Pharisee (private collection).²  These paintings, however, appear to be less lushly painted than the present canvas, and with fewer of the more decorative elements found in Gandolfi's earlier works, such as the large silver ewers and the elegantly dressed youth in the foreground.

1 See D. Biagi Maino, Gaetano Gandolfi, Turin 1995, p. 343, cat. no. 1, reproduced fig. 1.
2 See Biagi Maino, op. cit., cat. nos. 240 and 278.