(San Matteo della Decima 1734–1802 Bologna)
The Holy Family with Saint Augustine,
dated lower centre: 1761,
oil on canvas, 230 x 152 cm, framed

Provenance:
probably comissioned by the Salaroli family;
Villa Monsignori di San Giovanni in Calamosca, Bologna;
Private collection, Bologna

Literature:
D. Biagi Maino, Gaetano Gandolfi, Turin, 1995, p. 345--346, no. 7, fig. 9;
M. Riccòmini (ed.), Maurizio Nobile. N. 21, catalogue, Bologna 2018, no. 25

As its excellent state of preservation demonstrates, the freshness of the rendering of the present painting is as precious as it is rare. This most appealing composition belonged to a Bolognese private collection and was first published by Donatella Biagi Maino (D. Biagi Maino, Gaetano Gandolfi, Turin 1995, pp. 31-32, 345-346).

It is possible to that the present work originally belonged to the Salaroli family. Indeed, it was previously in the Villa Monsignori di San Giovanni in Calamosco, as can be demonstrated from a photograph of about 1930-35, conserved in the archives of the Comelli family (this was confirmed by Donatella Biagi Maino and reported in: M. Riccòmini, op. cit., 2018, no. 25, wherein the Bishop Saint is identified).
This painting’s provenance is therefore of significant importance, as the history of Villa Monsignori is intertwined with some of the most noteworthy episodes in the history of Bolognese painting. Its first owner, Pompeo Monsignori, was bound by bonds of friendship to the cousins Carracci who on many occasions were his guests and Ludovico Carracci and his collaborators Lionello Spada and Francesco Brizio executed frescoes for him.

During the seventeenth century, the Villa became the property of Carlo Beccadelli, subsequently it was the property of the Salaroli family until the mid-eighteenth century, when it passed to the Nicoli, who held it until 1852. At this time, it was acquired by Raffaele Bisteghi, from whom it was inherited by Giambattista Comelli in 1902. During the 1960s this painting was evidently no longer at Calamosco: by this date Cuppini and Matteucci had concluded their survey of Bolognese villas and the paintings they contained, and it is impossible to imagine that so significant an altarpiece by the Gaetano Gandolfi could have been overlooked by Anna Maria Matteucci, who was responsible for the survey of paintngs (see G. Cuppini, A. M. Matteucci, Ville del Bolognese, (II ed.), Bologna 1969, pp. 110-113, 351-352).

It is therefore possible to advance a hypothesis regarding the circumstances of the work’s commission. If this sumptuous and beautiful villa belonged to the noble Salaroli family, tit is possible that in 1761 they decided to commission a new altarpiece by a promising young artist for the villa’s chapel.

Gaetano Gandolfi had already emerged artistically by the end of the previous decade and was protected by the refined collector and bibliophile, Antonio Buratti, a figure of significance in Bolognese cultural circles. Indeed, he had conceived and sponsored the volume Le Pitture di Pellegrino Tibaldi e Niccolò Abbati esistenti nell’Istituto di Bologna of 1756, to which Gandolfi also contributed (see D. Biagi Maino, Gaetano Gandolfi, Turin 1995, pp. 15-18). This volume was to serve as a vehicle of fame for the prestigious headquarters of the Bolognese Istituto delle Scienze that was re-founded during these same years by Benedict XIV (see D. Biagi Maino, L’immagine del Settecento da Luigi Ferdinando Marsili a Benedetto XIV, Turin 2005). Buratti was also the patron of the talented young Gaetano’s year of study in Venice, permitting him, like the Carracci, to become acquainted with the great Venetian paintings of light and colour.

During this year in Venice, building on the foundations of his local training, Gaetano studied the art of Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto and became enthusiastically fascinated by the innovations of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, who he heard about during his formative Bolognese years at the Accademia Clementina of the Istituto delle Scienze. Francesco Algarotti, who was a mentor to the artists of his generation, took on a mentoring role for Gandolfi during his sojourn in Bologna from 1756 to 1762, and was the figure responsible for introducing Gandolfi to Tiepolo. This intense course of studies was to provide Gaetano Gandolfi with sustained intellectual ideas throughout the course of his brilliant career.

The date ‘1761’ that Gandolfi inscribes on the platform that the Bishop Saint plants his foot upon is a clear statement of self-affirmation, of a new self-awareness, almost as if marking a point of no return. Compared to his accomplishments of only two years earlier, the Piumazzo altarpiece and the fourteenth Station of the Cross (see D. Biagi Maino, Gaetano Gandolfi, op. cit., p. 345, nn. 5-6), the present painting stands apart with authority beacause of its compositional novelty and its sophisticated palette. The work unifies his fascination with Venetian influences and the rich colour range of the seventeenth-century Bolognese works that he encountered during his years of study.
The pink and pale blue robes of his youthful Mary make her into a tender image of exquisite grace; likewise, the Child’s gentle gesture of benediction is full of refinement. The superb rendering of Saint Augustine’s vestments, the cloth of the cope reverberating with light, the clasp depicted as a brilliantly decorated precious stoneand the rhythmic stepped ascent of the composition are all new inventions. Such innovations were unheard of in Bologna during the years of Giovan Pietro Zanotti’s authority over the Accademia: his classicising rappel à l’ordre was forcefully imposed and demanded, and it had been the foundation upon which Gandolfi had conceived the Piumazzo altarpiece.

Gaetano, however, audaciously imposed a new approach to the local school of painting, but he paid the price for this. He had to wait a long time before he was admitted to the academy, having to tolerate many artists of lesser talent being admitted ahead of him. Gaetano Gandolfi was only elected to the Academy in 1765 after he had not only asserted himself in Italy, but also in England and Russia, demonstrating himself to be ahead of his time in comparison to both his compatriots and many of his contemporaries: his was a trail-blazing career.

We are grateful to Donatella Biagi Maino for cataloguing the present painting.