1774

The Assumption of the Virgin with Saints Philip and James the Greater

Italian, 1734 - 1802

Gaetano Gandolfi was raised on a farm in the Po River valley, but he followed his older brother Ubaldo to nearby Bologna to train as a painter. Except for short stays in Venice and London, he worked entirely in Bologna, where he became the leading decorative painter of his day. This drawing, typical of his graceful and fluid pen style, was for a painting unveiled in a Bolognese church on the feast day of the two saints depicted, Philip and James, on 9 May 1774.