id: 160143 accession number: 1998.10 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1998.10 updated: 2022-10-29 16:27:46.964000 The Holy Family, 1776. Gaetano Gandolfi (Italian, 1734–1802). Oil on canvas; framed: 105.5 x 87 x 6 cm (41 9/16 x 34 1/4 x 2 3/8 in.); unframed: 87 x 68.5 cm (34 1/4 x 26 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1998.10 title: The Holy Family title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1776 creation date earliest: 1776 creation date latest: 1776 current location: creditline: John L. Severance Fund copyright: --- culture: Italy, 18th century technique: oil on canvas department: European Painting and Sculpture collection: P - Italian 18th Century type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Gaetano Gandolfi (Italian, 1734–1802) - artist --- measurements: Framed: 105.5 x 87 x 6 cm (41 9/16 x 34 1/4 x 2 3/8 in.); Unframed: 87 x 68.5 cm (34 1/4 x 26 15/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * "Bella pittura: The Art of the Gandolfi", National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, June 18-September 6, 1993 and the Arkansas Center, Little. --- PROVENANCE Sold: Sotheby's Monaco, 16 and 17 June 1989, lot #322. date: footnotes: citations: London private collection (Giovanni Sarti, Paris, 1998), sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. date: footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: A work of Gandolfi's later years, The Holy Family was exhibited in the religious festival at the church of San Procolo in Bologna in 1776. The painting's balanced composition, along with the suggestion of emotional connections among the figures, expresses the religious honesty of Gandolfi's art. Here St. Joseph holds the scriptures for the Christ child, who sits on his mother's lap; the elderly Joseph also holds the flowering rod, a sign from heaven that he was chosen to be Mary's husband. Joseph looks with concern toward Mary, who in turn looks up toward the cherubim hovering in a cloud at the upper left. Viewers of the private devotional painting were meant to understand that the young Christ reads of his future in the gospels, and that the suffering he will endure is reflected in Mary's sad gaze. Gandolfi was the most popular member of a prominent artistic family in Bologna. As both draftsman and painter he distinguished himself in religious, mythological, and genre subjects and was admired by his Italian and English patrons. He is known for his down-to-earth naturalism, typical of Bolognese art. The frame—although modern—is a "Gandolfini," so-called because the style was created for paintings by members of the Gandolfi family. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Cleveland Museum of Art, “Painting by 18th-century Italian Master Gaetano Gandolfi among Works Added to CMA Collection,” March 24, 1998, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. page number: url: https://archive.org/details/cmapr4109 --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1998.10/1998.10_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1998.10/1998.10_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1998.10/1998.10_full.tif