(Bologna 1764–1834)
The Education of Cupid,
oil on panel, diam. 70 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Turin

We are grateful to Donatella Biagi Maino for suggesting the attribution and her help in cataloguing the present painting.

The present painting of The Education of Cupid is based on a composition by Pelagio Palagi (1775-1860). Pelagio Pelagi created several versions of this composition. The first version was commissioned by the Ciani family and is today in a private collection in Verona, the second version, on panel, is in the Collezioni Comunali d’Arte, Bologna and the third version, on canvas, is now the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo, Brescia (see: C. Pioppi, Pelagio Palagi pittore. Dipinti dale raccolte del Comune di Bologna, exhibition catalogue, Bologna, Milan 1996, pp. 170-71, cat. no. 44) A fourth version is known from the sources, and attests to the success of the subject (see: G. Ericiani, Per Pelagio Palagi –La ‘Venere e Amore’ Ciani, in: Bollettino d’Arte’ a.LXXX, s. VI, n. 30, March-April, pp. 95-98).

Donatella Biagi Maino has attributed the present painting to Mauro Gandolfi and she believes that he painted this picture between the first and the second versions of Pelagio Pelagi´s composition.

Mauro Gandolfi was a talented artist from Bologna and the heir to a family of great painters. However, towards the end of the 18th century, he elected to abandon his family’s traditional occupation of painting, for the lucrative practice of engraving, moving to Paris in 1801. Here he specialized as an engraver and reproduced engravings of the paintings in French museums. After returning to Italy, he also worked as an engraver in Bologna.

It was after his return to Bologna that he translated the present composition by Palagi onto copper, displayinghis highly refined abilities as a print maker. It bears a text with a dedication to the Conte Cicogna (the inscription reads: Pelagio Palagi dipinse / Mauro Gandolfi dis. Et incise / EDUCAZIONE DI AMORE / Al Signor Conte Carlo Cicogna Cabaliere del Sovrano Militare Ordine / di S. Giovanni di Gerusalemme e dell’Ordine Austriaco della Corona di Ferro / Tanner impesse / Si vende in Milano presso li Fratelli Bettalli / Gli Editori D. D.D.), and an important notice: ‘si vende a Milano presso li fratelli Bettalli’ [‘sold at Milan by the Bettalli brothers’].

It is known that Gandolfi’s preparatory drawing for the engraving of the present subject was criticised by Palagi, who wrote to the printer Bettalli: ‘col disegno si alontanò molto dall’originale; ma pure questi si poteva dire veramente bello sia per l’effetto totale come per la giustezza e la trasparenza de’ gradi, finitezza e rotondità delle parti, è di una forza che supera di gran lunga la di lui stampa’ che ‘non tiene mai nell’originale ne alla copia, e si dimentica per fino di essere Gandolfi, e non lo rammenta che nelle sue affettazioni e caricature smodate’ [‘with the drawing he distanced himself significantly from the original, but this could nevertheless be called very beautiful, both on account of its overall effect and for the rightness of its clear shading and the rounded finish of all the parts, it is of a force that far outstrips his print’ that ‘is neither close to the original nor the copy and he even seems to forget that he is Gandolfi, and does not remind us, other than in his affectations and outmoded caricatures’] (see: C. Pioppi, op. cit. p. 170).

After Gandolfi’s completion of the copper plate he probably retained the water-colour drawing, and from this model, made the present painting, which displays a methodology and handling of paint which is typical of his works.