Giuseppe Gandolfo (Catania 1792-Catania 1855), Saint Joseph enthroned, sour rounded by Putts, Cherubs and Angels ...

Giuseppe Gandolfo (Catania 1792-Catania 1855), Saint Joseph enthroned, sour rounded by Putts, Cherubs and Angels, early 19th century. Cm 38x27, in a 19th century, frame cm 50x39.

"The paint oil on canvas, by Giuseppe Gandolfo, constitutes the sketch of the great work kept at the Church SS. Cosmas and Damian of Catania (M. SS of Consolation). Giuseppe Gandolfo, was born in Catania on August 28, 1792. Initiated by his father, he conducted literary studies, then in January 1819 moved to Rome, where he was a student of Trapani Giuseppe Errante, and after in Florence, where he studied with the neoclassicist Pietro Benvenuti (Arezzo 1769-Florence 1844). His biographers, Longo and Brancaleone, tell us that during the years of his apprenticeship, Following the traditional academic teachings, he devoted himself to studying the ancient and masterpieces of Italian masters of the sixteenth century. To this first period, are afferible numerous copies from Raffaello, Tiziano, Correggio, Sassoferrato and Carlo Dolci, gone lost.

In Florence, where he gained a certain notoriety by performing several paintings of mythological and sacred character, he succeeded in obtaining protection from the Court of Tuscany and the noble Alessandro Oppizzoni, through the intercession of his brother Carlo, Archbishop of Bologna.

In 1822 he returned to Sicily, becoming one of the most representative personalities in the local area and establishing himself as a portraitist.

His portraits, some of which are kept in the Civic Museum of Castello Ursino in Catania, executed in large part from 1834 and 1854, are characterized by great executive finesse, for the meticulous care in the rendering of clothes and accessories and for the bright and translucent shades of colors, although the expression of the faces and the stiffness of the characters depicted remain conventionally linked to the modules of neoclassicism academic. He died in Catania on 13 September 1855." STUDIO ASOR