Studies of ten heads

This drawing of a cluster of ten heads closely juxtaposed is a fine example of Gaetano Gandolfi’s pictorial heads or teste pittoriche. Assembled together on the sheet are heads of different types: young women with elaborate headgear, old bearded men, and several youths. Such compositions were in vogue in Bologna in the 18th Century. Many of Gaetano’s drawings were engraved by Luigi Tadolini (1758-1823) and published, around 1785, in a collection entitled Raccolta di teste pittoriche inventate e disegnate a penna dal Sig. G. Gandolfi Accademico Clementino ed incise in rame da Luigi Tadolini, a copy of which survives in Paris (see D. Biagi Maino, ‘Gaetano Gandolfi's 'capricci' of Heads. Drawings and Engravings’, The Burlington Magazine, CXXXVI, no. 1095, June 1994, pp. 375-379). The present drawing was included in Tadolini’s publication as plate 5 (fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Luigi Tadolini, after Gaetano Gandolfi, Raccolta di teste pittoriche, plate 5. Bibliothèque d’Art et d’Archéologie Jacques Doucet, Paris.