Studies of heads of a young man and girl

The present painting is a study for two young wedding guests in The Marriage at Cana, signed and dated 1775, in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna (fig.1). Among other oil sketches for that painting are A Turbaned Man, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and a full modello in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. Donatella Biagi Maino has confirmed the attribution to Gaetano Gandolfi and pointed out that the painting she publishes (see Gaetano Gandolfi, 1995, no. 100, fig. 113) is in fact a studio replica of the present work. She further notes that she believes the woman in the present painting is the artist's wife. Mimi Cazort has also confirmed that the present painting is by Gaetano Gandolfi, and will include it in her forthcoming monograph on the artist, dating it to 1774-5.