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Gaetano Gandolfi was born near Bologna and belonged to a family of artists.  He studied at the Accademia Clementina in Bologna, and spent his entire career in the city.  He visited London in 1787-8.

Foligno

Three altarpieces that Bishop Filippo Trenta commissioned from Gaetano Gandolfi arrived in Foligno in July 1791:

St Felician Liberates Foligno from the Plague (1789)

Bishop Trenta commissioned this altarpiece for the high altar of the Duomo.  It was originally signed and dated 1789, but this inscription is no longer legible.  Unfortunately, it was damaged in the bombing of 1944 and has been largely repainted.  It is now on an altar on the left of the nave.

A preparatory study survives in the Palazzo Barberini, Rome.





Vision of Blessed Angela of Foligno (ca. 1791)

Bishop Trenta  commissioned this altarpiece for the Altare della Beata Angela in San Francesco.  It has recently been restored.





 

Annunciation (ca. 1791) 

Bishop Filippo Trenta commissioned an oval panel for the nuns of the Chiesa della SS Trinità in Annunziata in 1789, but they rejected it because it was too small for their purposes.  The panel, together with a preparatory sketch in oil on canvas, passed to his private collection: the preparatory sketch was recently offered at auction.

This second larger oval panel was installed on the high altar of the church in 1792.  When the church closed in 1860, it was moved to Sant’ Apollinare.  It was over-painted in 1828.  [Where is it now?]


Return to Art in:  Foligno.


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Gaetano Gandolfi (1734-1802)  


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Gaetano Gandolfi in:   Foligno