[...] in the 1760s Gandolfi began to devote himself to a series of paintings of heads and busts of adults and children captured in various moments of daily life, with a special focus on the rendering of affections. 

Gaetano Gandolfi was born in San Matteo della Decima on 30 August 1734 to Giuseppe Antonio and Francesca Maria Baldoni. He moved in with his brother Ubaldo in Bologna at an early age, training as an artist at the workshop of the versatile anatomist Ercole Lelli and attending lessons at the Accademia Clementina, where he won the Marsili and Fiori prizes on a number of occasions during the 1750s thanks to his exceptional talent. Gandolfi focused on the Carracci brothers and 16th-century masters, studying their works in first person and also prints. He constantly sought excellent models from the past, providing his extraordinary creative gifts with fundamental fuel for growth. The artist exercised his hand and his ingenuity continuously in his extensive graphic production, over time going on to set an essential example of style and method for the Bolognese artists of subsequent generations. He was widely admired by experts and collectors, attracting the attention of the Venetian merchant Buratti, who offered Gandolfi the chance to stay in Venice in 1760, where he received numerous commissions for engravings, sculptures and drawings. His careful study of Venetian compositions and colouring is apparent in his subsequent works, starting with the altarpieces with the Holy Family and Bishop of 1761 and the Crucifixion of Christ with Saints of 1763 (Reggio Emilia, Musei Civici). In addition to the canvases and frescoes destined for churches and his paintings of scenes from literature, such as Ulysses and the Sorceress Circe of 1766 (Piacenza, Museo Civico), in the 1760s Gandolfi began to devote himself to a series of paintings of heads and busts of adults and children captured in various moments of daily life, with a special focus on the rendering of affections. This beautiful little canvas from the Cerruti Collection can be included among this series, which also includes portraits of the artist’s family, such as the one of his wife Giovanna Spisani, whom he married in 1763 and who acted as his model for important compositions, and the one of Mauro, one of his seven children, painted at the age of around four years old in 1768. The attribution of the Two Young Brothers Embracing to Gaetano Gandolfi can be ascribed to Donatella Biagi Maino, who wanted to correct an earlier reference to Ubaldo Gandolfi. The scholar’s opinion is confirmed by the comparison with other works of this type in the painter’s catalogue, such as the Bust of a Young Boy painted in c. 1770 (formerly London, Colnaghi), also traditionally attributed to Ubaldo then restored to Gaetano firstly by Garstand and then by Biagi Maino.¹ The exercise in juxtaposing two faces also appears in the Girl with Coral Necklace and Child (London, private collection) and in the figure study for the Wedding at Cana in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna, painted by Gandolfi in 1775 for the refectory of the Lateran convent of San Salvatore.² 

Simone Mattiello

¹ D. Biagi Maino, in London 1991, p. 132, no. 1.

² Id. 1995, 108, pp. 370, 372, cat. 100.