The ANNOTICO Report

A Renaissance bronze bust, Ludovico Lombardo's life-size bust of Lucius
Junius Brutus, circa 1550, and an 18th century canvas "Selene and
Endymion," circa 1770, by Ubaldo Gandolfi, an artist considered one of the
last representatives of the tradition of Bolognese painting have been
acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Along with his artist brother Gaetano and Gaetano's son Mauro, Lombardo was
a member of a small dynasty of Venetian sculptors. Contemporaries of
Benvenuto Cellini in Florence, they were members of the school of Recanati,
whose foundry in that city produced the bronzes of the basilica of the
Santa Casa of Loreto and other large bronze monuments in northern Italy.

The Gandolfi work is part of a tradition of Bolognese painting that began
with the Carraci at the end of the 16th century, blossomed with Guido Reni
in the 17th century and ended with the family's late 18th century work.

Cellini in Florence always justifiably gets a lot of attention, but there
were things happening on the other coast of Italy at the same time, and
those were the developments from the school of Recanati," and although
LACMA already has a small bronze relief from the school of Recanati, it's
difference for scholars is quite significant.

At the museum, the Gandolfi painting will join another work from the
Gandolfi dynasty, Gaetano Gandolfi's "Study of an Oriental Head for the
Marriage at Cana." The new acquisition is comparable in scale to other 18th
century paintings in the museum's collection, including Pompeo Batoni's
portrait of Sir Wyndham Knatchbull-Wyndham, or Ludovico Mazzanti's "Death
of Lucretia."

The Ubaldo Gandolfi painting is particularly interesting because it is a
night scene. "It is unusual for the artists to represent things in
semi-darkness."  "It was nice to bring in a note of quiet. It's very, very
soft, it's painted in blues and grays, pale yellow, all bathed in the light
of the moon."

Los Angeles Times
By Diane Haithman
Times Staff Writer
July 27, 2005

A Renaissance bronze bust and an 18th century canvas by an artist
considered one of the last representatives of the tradition of Bolognese
painting have been acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Ludovico Lombardo's life-size bust of Lucius Junius Brutus, circa 1550, and
the painting "Selene and Endymion," circa 1770, by Ubaldo Gandolfi —
acquired from art dealers in New York and Paris, respectively — were
installed Friday in LACMA's European painting and sculpture galleries)
after several months of restoration and conservation at the museum. The
bust has been in storage for 80 years and has not been seen publicly for at
least that long. The dealer is Wildenstein & Co. of New York.

The artworks were purchased with funds from the Ahmanson Foundation, which
has a special interest in art from the Middle Ages through the early 19th
century and has donated works to the museum since the early 1960s. In 2004,
the foundation gave LACMA a life-size plaster sculpture of French
philosopher Voltaire by Jean-Antoine Houdon, widely considered Europe's
finest 18th century sculptor.

Along with his artist brother Gaetano and Gaetano's son Mauro, Lombardo was
a member of a small dynasty of Venetian sculptors. Contemporaries of
Benvenuto Cellini in Florence, they were members of the school of Recanati,
whose foundry in that city produced the bronzes of the basilica of the
Santa Casa of Loreto and other large bronze monuments in northern Italy.

According to LACMA, the Gandolfi work is part of a tradition of Bolognese
painting that began with the Carraci at the end of the 16th century,
blossomed with Guido Reni in the 17th century and ended with the family's
late 18th century work.

"Cellini in Florence always justifiably gets a lot of attention, but there
were things happening on the other coast of Italy at the same time, and
those were the developments from the school of Recanati," said Mary
Levkoff, LACMA's curator of European sculpture. "We already have a small
bronze relief from that group of artists as well, so unusually enough we
are a museum with two objects from the school of Recanati. I know that's a
little bit obscure, but for scholars it's quite significant."

Levkoff added that the acquisition is part of the museum's attempt to
strengthen its holdings in Renaissance and medieval sculpture.

"I really was elated to be able to get this sculpture — I had it on reserve
before we reserved the Voltaire, but the timing was such that we were able
to acquire the Voltaire first," she said. "Emotionally and personally for
me by far this is one of my favorite acquisitions."

At the museum, the Gandolfi painting will join another work from the
Gandolfi dynasty, Gaetano Gandolfi's "Study of an Oriental Head for the
Marriage at Cana," a 1982 gift of the Ahmanson Foundation. J. Patrice
Marandel, chief curator of LACMA's Center for European art, said the new
acquisition is comparable in scale to other 18th century paintings in the
museum's collection, including Pompeo Batoni's portrait of Sir Wyndham
Knatchbull-Wyndham, or Ludovico Mazzanti's "Death of Lucretia," both also
gifts of the Ahmanson Foundation.

Marandel said the Ubaldo Gandolfi painting is particularly interesting
because it is a night scene. "It is unusual for the artists to represent
things in semi-darkness," Marandel said. "It was nice to bring in a note of
quiet. It's very, very soft, it's painted in blues and grays, pale yellow,
all bathed in the light of the moon."

Denise Allen, associate curator of the Frick Collection in New York and a
specialist in Renaissance and 18th century art, called both acquisitions
exciting for LACMA. The mythological painting, she said, strengthens
LACMA's collection of European paintings. "The painting finishes, or ends,
a sequence of acquisitions of large-scale paintings of the Baroque period —
it's an 18th century picture, but it finishes the Baroque tradition in
Bologna in the way that Tiepolo finishes it in Venice," Allen said.

She added that the painting enhances what she calls LACMA's holdings of
"artists one wouldn't expect," including 17th century artist Michael
Sweerts and Dutch Baroque era painter Gerrit van Honthorst.

She said the bust is significant to the museum's holding in large-scale
sculpture, including the Voltaire piece and Giovanni Bandini's bust of
Cosimo I de' Medici, circa 1572.

"LACMA is renowned for its collection of small-scale sculpture, it has
brilliant terra cotta sculpture from the 18th century, but it also has some
remarkable large-scale sculpture, and this bust fits into that," Allen
said. "The collection is being aggrandized in terms of acquisitions in
large scale, and it's something that they really need to do, and they are
recognizing that."

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