Gaetano Gandolfi

The following condition report is provided by Rebecca Gregg who is an independent expert and not an employee of Sotheby's. The painting is in a very good condition. The open weave original canvas support is in a very good condition; it is unlined and retains the turn-over edge. It is attached by a series of bent pins onto a strainer. There is no evidence that the painting has been re-lined at any point during its history. The overall tension of the canvas is relatively slack with minor planar deformations along the edges of the strainer, exacerbated by the differing environmental conditions behind the stretcher bars and the remainder of the support. There are localized planar deformations along the left. There are five small holes along the left edge, some of which appear relatively recent; resulting in losses to the paint and ground layers they are probably a result of woodworm. There is evidence of woodworm activity in the strainer. The paint layers are in good condition, there are no significant recent damages or loss and the adhesion between the paint and ground layers and the support appears excellent. There are minor losses along the turn-over edge in the lower two corners and a scattering of very minor losses throughout, none of which are significant or cause any visual disturbance. There is a regular craqulure pattern present, all of which appears stable with no delaminating or lifting or the paint layers. The blanched areas in the sitter's red robe appears to be a symptom of the degrading varnish layer. It is difficult to asses the full extent of any effect on the upper layers of the paint; however, there is little evidence that the paint layers are effected. There is a significant layer of ingrained dirt present between the paint layers and the varnish layers. This has caused the slightly mottled appearance, and which can be relatively simply cleared from the surface of the paint. There is a degraded and discoloured varnish layer, in ultra violet examination this layer appears uneven, with a heavily coat of varnish along the lower edge.
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This intimate depiction of the Madonna Annunciate has only recently been rediscovered and was painted by Gaetano Gandolfi, the leading painter in the 18th century in his native city of Bologna. The lovely condition of the canvas is partly due to it being unlined. The composition was only known until now by a black-and-white photograph of a lost small preparatory work (figure 1) which Dottoressa Biagi Maino, to whom we are grateful for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs, lists as formerly in the Galleria Davia Bargellini in Bologna (inv. no. 315).¹ The bozzetto used to hang with another small preparatory study (both with dimensions of 13.5 by 11 cm) depicting the Calling of Saint Matthew but both went missing during the Second World War. Biagi Maino dates the sketches to the 1770s - thereby presumably pointing to a date very shortly after for the present work - comparing them specifically to the bozzetto, today in the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, for Gandolfi's enormous Marriage of Cana in the Pinacoteca in Bologna which is signed and dated 1775.² The present work would presumably have hung at some point with its pendant, the Archangel Gabriel.

Gandolfi worked almost exclusively in Bologna but he is known to have made a visit to Venice in 1760 which was to be of great significance to his style. This is reflected by the rich primary colours of his paintings, such as the strong red of the Madonna's blouse set against the dark background, and by the confident brushwork. The handling of paint points to an artist at his peak: the higlights around the eyes are marked by quite thick but at the same time delicate red lines, reminding us of Gaetano's skill as a draughtsman; the precision of the carefully studied hands contrasts with the more flowing and loose blue mantle. 




1. See D. Biagi Maino, Gaetano Gandolfi, Turin 1995, p. 371, cat. no. 103, reproduced fig. 115.
2. Idem, p. 369, cat. no. 97, reproduced fig. 111; and p. 370, cat. no 101, reproduced fig, 112 and in colour plate LXVIII.