Ubaldo Gandolfi

(San Matteo della Decima 1728-1781 Ravenna)

Hercules at the Crossroads between Virtue and Vice; and The Apotheosis of Hercules, within painted ovals (2)

Footnotes

Provenance
Malvezzi Collection, Palazzo Malvezzi, Bologna
Hercolani Collection, Bologna, by the 19th century
With P & D Colnaghi and Co Ltd., London, 1954, cat. nos. 7 & 9, where acquired by
Leslie Mackay, and by descent through the family

Literature
F. Belvisi, Galleria Malvezzi Hercolani, 19th Century, ms. 1496, section VIII, no. 9, Biblioteca Universitaria, Bologna
Ricci e Zucchini, Guida di Bologna, Bologna, 1930, p. 120
R. Roli, Pittura Bolognese 1650-1800. Dal Cignani ai Gandolfi, Bologna, 1977, p. 72 (Triumph of Hercules)
M. Pigozzi, La Ca' Grande dei Malvezzi, in Palazzo Poggi, da dimora aristocratica a sede dell'Universita' di Bologna, Bologna, 1988, p. 94
J. Bentini et al, Disegni Emiliani del sei-settecento I grandi cicli di affreschi, Milan, 1990, p. 273 and p. 38.2 (Crossroads), p. 278 and pl. 38.7 (Apotheosis)
D. Biagi Maino, Ubaldo Gandolfi, Turin, 1990, p. 279, cat. no. 161, ill. pl. 239 (Triumph of Hercules) and p. 278, cat. no. 159, ill. pl 225 (Hercules at the Crossroads)
Priscio Bagni, I Gandolfi: Affreschi, Dipinti, Bozzetti, Disegni, 1992, p. 643 and p. 648, cat. nos. 618 & 623
A. Czeré, 'Four Drawings by the Gandolfi Borther and the 'scuola del nudo' in Bologna', in Master Drawings, Winter, 1993, vol. 31, no. 4, p. 466

Ubaldo Gandolfi is first recorded as having worked on the decorative cycle at Malvezzi Ca' Granda in 1782 (see Pitture, Scolture ed Architetture Della Citta' di Bologna, Bologna, 1782, p. 60) and remains one of the few large-scale mural decorations to survive by the artist. The more precise dating of the works, however, has been much discussed. In her monograph on the artist, Biagi Maino suggests that the frescoes were most likely executed around 1779-80. She compares them to his Saint Lucy at the church of Santa Maria in Garda, Villa Fontana (see D. Biagi Maino, Ubaldo Gandolfi, Turin, 1990, p. 280, cat. no. 164) which is signed and dated 1781.

The Ca' Grande Malvezzi was the palace belonging the parent branch of the Malvezzi family in Bologna and in 1827 it was annexed to the nearby Palazzo Poggi in order to enlarge the University. Commissioned by Sigismondo Malvezzi in tandem with the scene painter Davide Zanotti (1733-1808) who was responsible for the architectural setting, Gandolfi completed two ceiling paintings for the palace – the Apotheosis of Hercules (fig. 1) and the Hercules at the Crossroads. The two artists had worked together previously on at least one other project, the Apollo and Chronos at the Palazzo Bovio Silvestri, now also Montebugnoli, in 1776 and which now serves as the seat of the Soprintendenza per i beni culturali.

In her 1993 article on drawings by Gandolfi, Czeré identifies, other than these two oil bozzetti, nine preparatory studies for the decorative scheme at Palazzo Malvezzi. Whilst a few small pentimenti can be identified in the present oil studies themselves, Gandolfi has remained relatively faithful to them in his frescoes, other than a few small adjustments to allow for the squarer dimensions of the central section of the frescoes and the change in colour for the drapery in Hercules at the Crossroads.