Live Auction 21459Old Master and British Drawings and Watercolours
UBALDO GANDOLFI (SAN MATTEO DELLA DECIMA 1728-1781 RAVENNA)
Lot 44

UBALDO GANDOLFI (SAN MATTEO DELLA DECIMA 1728-1781 RAVENNA)

The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist

Closed4 July 2023

Price Realised

GBP 10,710

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UBALDO GANDOLFI (SAN MATTEO DELLA DECIMA 1728-1781 RAVENNA)
The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist
graphite, pen and brown ink, brown wash, pen and brown ink framing lines
27.8 cm x 19.5 cm (11 x 7 3/4 in.)

Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, London, 8 July 1998, lot 49; where acquired by the present owners.

Specialist note

The drawing can be connected to a large altarpiece in the church of San Michele in Vercelli, executed by Ubaldo Gandolfi around 1776 for the Compagnia di San Giovanni Decollato (see M. Dell’Omo, ‘La cultura figurativa a Vercelli e nel Vercellese nel Settecento: nuove indagini’, Arti figurative a Biella e a Vercelli. Il Seicento e il Settecento, Vigliano Biellese, 2004, p. 158, n. 65). A preparatory oil sketch for the painting is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. 2014.566) and two other drawn versions of the composition are known: a sheet in Palazzo Rosso in Genoa (inv. 2326; see P. Bagni, I Gandolfi. Affreschi dipinti bozzetti disegni, Bologna, 1992, no. 708, ill.) and a second one currently on the art market (with Colnaghi, London, 2023).