(San Matteo della Decima 1734 - Bologna 1802)
PORTRAIT OF MAURO TESI, 1787
Etching, Gozzi 6; 319 x 219 mm. Some defects and missing lower right corner.
Our impression is of exceptional rarity. It is, In fact, the only known example of this print before the biting of the plate with aquatint, bite that was made by Count Gini and not by Gandolfi.
As Gozzi indicates, this plate opens the series of 42 etchings that make up the magnificent volume Raccolta di disegni originali di Mauro Tesi estratti da diverse collezioni pubblicata da Ludovico Inig calcografo in Bologna. Published by Count Cesare Massimiliano Gini, owner of some of Tesi's drawings reproduced in the volume.
See Fausto Gozzi, Ubaldo, Gaetano e Mauro Gandolfi: le incisioni, San Giovanni in Persiceto 2002. Cat. No 6.
One of the most prominent members of a family constituting the predominant artistic influence in late eighteenth-century Bologna, Gaetano Gandolfi studied, as his elder brother Ubaldo, at the Accademia Clementina. In 1760 Gaetano went to study for a brief period in Venice, an important formative trip which is reflected in the vigorous brushwork and colours of his paintings. In addition from receiving numerous commissions for altarpieces for churches throughout Emilia and elsewhere, Gaetano Gandolfi worked extensively as a fresco painter in several Bolognese palaces. In the later years of his successful career he also produced easel paintings of historical and mythological subjects. Gaetano was a gifted draughtsman and sensitive portraitist.
