UBALDO GANDOLFI (S. Matteo della Decima, 1728 - Ravenna, 1781) The Finding of the True Cross Oil on canvas, 75.5X41.9 cm Provenance: E.J. Blaiberg London, Christie's, 14 April 1978, lot 40 (as Ubaldo Gandolfi; see attached documentation in the condition report) Exhibition: The Grand Gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Sixth International Exhibition presented by C.I.N.O.A., New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art 1974 (according to label on verso) The painting is an interesting addition to the artist's catalogue and Donatella Biagi Maino recognises it as a sketch for the altarpiece painted in 1775 for the church of Sant'Eusebio in Vercelli, probably commissioned by Monsignor Giuseppe Maria Langosco di Stroppiana. The work best documents the painter's talent, capable of renewing the Emilian tradition by combining it with the Venetian influences of Sebastiano Ricci, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, with results of highly effective illustrative oratory. A pupil of Felice Torelli and Ercole Graziani, Ubaldo Gandolfi began his career at the end of the fifth decade and also attended the Accademia Clementina in those years, revealing a specific attention to the examples of Carracci and Guercino. In the 1760s, after studying in Florence and Venice, his production reveals a clear change in taste, also influenced by his brother Gaetano, also documented in the lagoon city in 1760. As we can verify, the canvas accurately depicts the miraculous episode, with the cross in the centre, St. Helena in regal dress on the left, the resurrected man on the right and Bishop Macarius in the background. Legend has it that after the battle of Ponte Milvio and his mystical vision that would end the persecution of Christians, Emperor Constantine decided to send his mother to Jerusalem in search of the True Cross. Having found the place where the holy relic was buried, the queen discovered three different crosses and to identify the one on which Jesus had died, she touched a dead person with the wood and he resurrected. Ubaldo's creation, therefore, proves to be extraordinarily theatrical and baroque, in which he displays his vast and heterogeneous artistic culture. Another important aspect to note is the evident pictorial brio of the drafts, which induces Biagi Maino to evaluate the other model, formerly in the Fiore and Fondantico collection (cf. Biagi Maino 1991, p. 265), as being of firmer and more calm draftsmanship, judging our unpublished work 'absolutely stunning for its writing, sensitivity of touch and the delicacy of the moving and vibrant sign'. The work is accompanied by a critical card by Donatella Biagi Maino. Reference bibliography: D. Biagi Maino, Ubaldo Gandolfi, Turin 1990, p. 265, no. 78