Giovanni Mazzaferro. Scholarship and Art Market in Nineteenth-Century Italy: the Case of Michelangelo Gualandi

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Giovanni Mazzaferro
Scholarship and Art Market in Nineteenth-Century Italy: the Case of Michelangelo Gualandi

Figure 1) Michelangelo Gualandi’s diploma as honorary member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna (17 November 1846). Archivio della Deputazione di Storia Patria delle Province di Romagna. Busta 130 Fasc. 7. Photo: Giovanni Mazzaferro

WARNING: This article was written before discovering the correspondence between Michelangelo Gualandi and Charles Lock Eastlake in the Library of the University of Frankfurt am Main. For more information, please, consult G. Mazzaferro, Il mercato artistico nel carteggio fra Michelangelo Gualandi e Charles Lock Eastlake (1855-1865): un'introduzione, published in the review MDCC1800 9/2020 (University Ca' Foscari, Venice) and free available at
http://doi.org/10.30687/MDCCC/2280-8841/2020/01/005 
and S. Avery-Quash, G. Mazzaferro, Michelangelo Gualandi (1793-1887) and the National Gallery in Journal of the History of Collections, Oxford University Press, 2020, available at 

https://doi.org/10.1093/jhc/fhaa035

In a short autobiography written in trembling calligraphy in 1884, at the age of ninety-one, Michelangelo Gualandi (Bologna, 1793 - Bologna, 1887) wrote:

«I had the chance to meet the famous Englishman Sir E[a]stlake; having come to us for the purchase of paintings, he granted me his entire trust, which I was able to gain as a mediator in Bologna and in other towns; so he wanted me with him, and he declared himself fully satisfied with his generous remuneration. Death, which cuts the best and lets the offenders go, took him away from my esteem and affection» [1].

Yet Gualandi is cited in the artistic sphere essentially for two of his erudite works, namely the six series (often bound in three volumes) of the Memorie originali italiane risguardanti le belle arti (Original Italian Memoirs Regarding the Fine Arts) [2] and the three volumes of the Nuova raccolta di lettere sulla pittura, scultura ed architettura: scritte da più celebri personaggi dei secoli XV. a XIX. in aggiunta a quella data in luce da Bottari e dal Ticozzi (New Collection of Letters on Painting, Sculpture and Architecture: Written by the Most Famous Figures from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth Century [...] in Addition to that Brought out by Bottari and Ticozzi) [3]. The Nuova Raccolta di Lettere was a sort of spin-off of the Memorie. Gualandi began to publish both archive documents and artist letters under the title of Memorie; then, as the personally collected material or that received by his network of correspondents was mounting, he decided to separate them, inserting all the letters in a separate work that referred to the precedents by Bottari and Ticozzi. One of the fundamental reasons for the success of Gualandi’s collections was that, from a certain moment onwards, they displayed unpublished documents taken from the Medici archives, giving Gualandi, even internationally (albeit for a brief period), the fame as the legitimate successor of the work of Giovanni Gaye (1804-1840) and his Carteggio inedito d’artisti (Unpublished Correspondence of Artists) [4].

In reality, Gualandi’s scholarly publications were very abundant; however, before and after the Memorie and the Nuova Raccolta di Lettere  Michelangelo focused on purely local topics without ever provoking a real national interest. Moreover, the autograph manuscript production was endless; it was often centred on the transcription of archive documents. The dismemberment of the Gualandi’s archives (divided at least between Bologna, Frankfurt am Main, Washington and Pennsylvania) has prevented so far from gaining an overview of the indefatigable study activity of the Bolognese scholar [5].

Thanks to the retrieval and discovery of new materials, whose study is still at an early stage, this essay aims to bring to the attention of researchers a figure certainly full of limitations and contradictions, but all in all not secondary. And it aims, above all, at combining "documentary" and "circumstantial" evidence, to shed light on the mercantile activity of the Bolognese, conducted for several decades in parallel with respect to scholarly research, and practically unknown until today; activity that culminated in a ten-year collaboration with Charles Lock Eastlake, of which Gualandi was trustee and agent with the task of finding artworks in the Emilian area (and not only). 

A Mercantile Background

Michelangelo Gualandi, born in Bologna on 13 March 1793, was the son of Romano Gualandi (1756-1824) and Maria Pozzi (? -1826) [6]. The family probably belonged to the small merchant class [7]. Michelangelo learned up to fourteen years and then - as he wrote in his autobiography - was "addressed to commerce" by paternal will (he did not therefore have a university education). In fact, in his youth he exercised bookkeeping and commercial practices, combined with a particular predisposition for languages ​​(he perfectly commanded French and got along well with English) [8]. Initially serving third parties, then operating on his own, Gualandi practiced as a "negoziante" moving frequently both in Italy and abroad. The Italian term (today used as shop-keeper) should be understood in much broad sense, and assimilated to something between a merchant and an entrepreneur. The "negoziante" was somebody operating a "negotium" (in the original Latin meaning, i.e. a business activity); basically, he acted on his own by making goods travel at his own risk. What goods are we talking about? We have very few clues: a) a fragment of a letter addressed by Gualandi (who was at that time in Ancona) in 1818 to Geremia Delsette, a scholar living in Bologna and a collector of majolica [9]; b) the purchase of two frescoes by Bartolomeo Cesi in Imola in 1824 [10]; c) the publication (together with a group of friends) of a celebratory brochure entitled A Lodovico Lipparini pittore (To the painter Lodovico Lipparini) in 1828 [11]; d) the knowledge of details of export of paintings from Bologna to England [12]. All elements that lead us to think that Gualandi dealt (perhaps besides others) with the trade of books, paintings and fine art objects since the 1820s.

However, the first certain news we have about Gualandi as a "negoziante" dates back to 1831, and it has to do with the revolutionary movements of February and March of that year. The issue n. 1 of 8 February 1831 of the liberal bi-weekly Il Monitore Bolognese (The Bolognese Monitor) included an announcement that today solicits a hint of irony: all members of the National Guard who wanted to equip themselves with a weapon to face the Austrian army and the papal troops were invited to turn to Michele Angelo Gualandi, "negoziante" in Via de' Libri, who could show them a particular specimen of a rifle and, upon payment of a deposit, deliver it in the following days [13]. The announcement introduced a theme that would be a constant in Michelangelo's life: the fight for the liberal front, the manifest hostility towards the Papal State and the patriotic aspiration to the Italian unity. In his autobiography Gualandi wrote with a good dose of rhetoric:

«In the revolutions of 1820 (and later of 1830, of the 1848th and 1860) I associated myself with the true patriots with the voice, with the writings, with the facts, in order to move forward, facing risks and persecutions, the day of seeing the beloved homeland freed from internal and foreign slavery, erasing from its history that terrible forecast "Conquering or conquered, still to serve".»

To be honest, a direct involvement is proven only in 1831. Michelangelo served as Sergeant major of the Civic Guardia of Bologna [14]. After the failure of the revolt, "Gualandi Michelangelo, aged 42, from Bologna, landowner and merchant [note of the editor: was declared] exalted liberal, enemy of the Government, slanderous instigator"[15] and was listed among the insurgent Masons who left Bologna and fled abroad [16]. The return to Bologna, no doubt, followed the 1832 amnesty. Gualandi's political ideas and his adherence to Freemasonry must however be kept in mind because they probably allowed him to build up a circuit of friends to which he recurred also professionally. 

"Negoziante", "procuratore", "amatore di belle arti"

A fundamental milestone in Gualandi's autobiography occurred in 1834, when he claimed to have abandoned the activity of ‘negoziante’, leaving it to his younger brother Pietro, and devoted himself entirely, from that moment on, to the study of the fine arts and history [17]. A veritable life choice. In reality things must have been much more dramatic, as shown by the vision of other documents kept at the Archivio della Deputazione di Storia Patria delle Province di Romagna (Archive of the Homeland History Deputation for the Provinces of Romagna): in 1834 Michelangelo had financial problems with a Bolognese banker, Gaetano Mazzanti, and most likely failed to honour a bill of exchange. While exhibiting a certificate (dated June 1834) which showed that Mazzanti had in the end been paid, including due interest, it must be assumed that he was inhibited, at least temporarily, from the exercise of commerce [18].

One thing is certain: Gualandi did not abandon commercial practices, but modified them. He was no longer a ‘negoziante’, but a ‘procuratore’, i.e. an agent, preferably for contemporary art. The idea, in short, was to eliminate property risk and gain money, essentially, via the payment of commissions. The examination of the letters sent by Gualandi to the Bolognese sculptor Cincinnato Baruzzi (1796-1878) shows, for example, that at least between 1837 and 1839 Michelangelo acted as agent of the highly sought-after pupil of Antonio Canova, on the one hand organising the shipment of his works, on the other hand trying to establish contacts for new commissions. From the same correspondence it emerges that Michelangelo also promoted the artistic activity of the still young Cesare Masini (1812-1891), soliciting, since 1839, his appointment as titular of the chair of Painting in Bologna’s Academy [19].

Alongside the activity of 'procuratore', Michelangelo also carried out that of commission agent, and this is the most important aspect for us. Another precious document, to be read in the handwritten version of the Memoirs made available online by the University of Frankfurt, probably dates back to the years between 1834 (when it ceased to be a ‘negoziante’) and 1840. This is a last-minute correction made on a piece of re-used paper. In particular, a paper with corrections is inserted on the sheet 380b  of the Second Series, with the following English printed text on the back:

«Palace Zambeccari
near St. Paul’s Church
Bologna

Michelangelo Gualandi begs leave to inform the English Nobility and Gentry passing through this town that he has established a Commercial commission-house concerning the purchase, sale, and expedition of pictures, statues, books, engravings, and any other precious object belonging to the branch of the liberal Arts.
Mr. Gualandi has an active correspondence abroad.
The Commission-house will be opened from 10 in the morning to 4 o’ clock in the afternoon…» [20]. 

Fig. 2) An advertising flyer of the commission house of Michelangelo Gualandi. University Library Johann Christian Senckenberg of Frankfurt on the Main, Ms. lat. qu. 97 Bd. 2 http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/msneuz/urn/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:2-222521#dcId=1571239300277&p=1, c. 380b.

The fragment, at this point, is mutilated and unfortunately we have no way of continuing to read the text. However, what has reached us allows us to clarify a point. Gualandi no longer had his 'shop' in via dei Libri, as it appeared in 1831, but an office in the Zambeccari Palace close to the Saint Paul church. Most likely, the move took place with the sale of the ‘negoziante’ activity in 1834. The stay at Zambeccari Palace, after all, was short. In a notice addressed to readers, this time linked to the First Series of the Memoirs, Michelangelo invited interested parties to write to him at his office in Zambeccari Palace. The date was September 15, 1840 [21]. In the print program of the work, dated 31 July 1841, Gualandi's study was instead at the Fava Palace [22].

But let's go back to the fragment written in English: obviously, it was targeted to English visitors. We do not know how Gualandi contacted them. The announcement was obviously not published in the local press in Italian, which was not read by the British; to my knowledge, there were also no local publications in English. Most probably, the text was distributed as a flyer in the most exclusive hotels in the city, in particular in the prestigious Pensione Svizzera, or Hotel Brun, which housed almost all foreign tourists. Alternatively, it is possible that the flyer was materially delivered to foreigners by a person about whom we know very little, but who may have had an important role in this situation: the banker Flavio Perotti, British vice-consul in Bologna, correspondent of Coutts, one of the oldest and most prestigious banking institutions in England [23]. The mechanism that we can imagine is simple: Perotti (also thanks to his official position) took care of the reception of English travellers, provided them any practical indications and introduced them Gualandi (delivering, among other things, the leaflet of which we spoke) for the city tours. The latter encouraged purchases by showing guests works from his own collection or, possibly, by contacting the local nobility if the potential buyer proved interested in paintings belonging to others.

Some clues to support this hypothesis: it is certain that Gualandi was often the guide for English travellers. Thus, for example, he wrote to Baruzzi on 15 April 1839:

"Tomorrow I will be very busy as I will accompany the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland; I hope it will go well; in the same way I''ll accompany other people, and hopefully really many of them"[24].

The procedure I have described above is exactly what happened in the case of Mary Philadelphia Merrifield’s stay in Bologna in 1846 [25]: once arrived in Bologna, Mrs. Merrifield was first visited by Perotti and then had Gualandi as her privileged point of reference. In addition to actively helping her to consult an important manuscript at the convent of S. Salvatore, the latter also proposed the purchase of the two frescoes by Bartolomeo Cesi bought at Imola in 1824 [26] for 150 Napoleons and a not identified "Woman who caresses the child" by Annibale Carracci (a Madonna, I presume) for other 50 Napoleons [27].

And finally, in 1846, Gualandi bought, from the Zambeccari collection, through Perotti, a portrait of Charles V, which Gaetano Giordani had attributed to Titian and which then ended up in England, where his traces have been lost [28]. The circumstance is known because the sale made a sensation and an investigation was initiated by the Commissione Ausiliaria di Antichità e Belle Arti (Auxiliary Commission for Antiquities and Fine Arts) in fact, without any results. Perotti, moreover, had been involved for years in the export of Bolognese paintings to England, as evidenced by his purchase of eighteen paintings (six of which from the same Zambeccari collection), dating back to June 1838, for which he requested permission to export to Great Britain [29]; it is by no means excluded that, even in this affair, Gualandi was involved.

As you can see, there are all the elements to guess that the Bolognese scholar and the banker may have operated like a de facto corporation. It remains to be seen what the real consistency of the Gualandi’s collection was, first at the Zambeccari (until 1840) and then at Fava Palace (until 1857). In the first instance, Michelangelo offered purchases to the visitors from his collection. Unfortunately, we know very little about it, and this is undoubtedly one of the main gaps that we must still fill. I would guess, in fact, that Gualandi compiled a catalogue to be distributed by mail or to be delivered by hand. The pamphlet that Luciano Scarabelli printed in Piacenza in 1843, titled Alcuni quadri di Michelangelo Gualandi in Bologna (Some paintings belonging to Michelangelo Gualandi in Bologna), is unfortunately of little use to us. Only a selection of works is presented here, with a purely literary style and probably very imaginative attributions. It was clearly a writing destined to be diffused among a limited public of Italian aristocrats or high-ranking bourgeois who probably did not understand much about fine arts, but who would like to see paintings in their homes labelled  with the names of either the leading exponents of the Bolognese school since the Carraccis [30] or modern, classicist-inspired art creators [31]. The list did not include even a primitive, which is in clear contrast with the interests of nineteenth-century connoisseurs [32] and with the mercantile activity of Gualandi himself, who, as an agent of Eastlake (as we shall see), only dealt with primitives.

However things may have gone, certainly the Bolognese scholar’s activity was by its very nature crossing the borders of many disciplines: he liked to call himself an 'amatore di belle arti ' (amateur of fine arts), using an expression that means everything and the opposite. More generally, we could say that, while in some countries (such as in England) there was a trend to professionalise connoisseurship, codifying specific skills required both by private individuals and by nascent museum institutions [33], in others - and Italy was undoubtedly one of these - art trade was still operated by figures who simultaneously were painters, restorers, or, as in the case of Michelangelo, amateurs and scholars. The reasons are obvious: the English market was dominated by affluent buyers, whose main concern was to get assurance of the authenticity and quality of what they were buying; the Italian marked was to the contrary controlled by the supply side, made of art owners at the spasmodic search for money. Their financial situation was often challenging: the nobles were selling their movable assets first, and, if it was not enough, the immovable ones [34]. More or less all the states of the ancient regime, first of all the Papal State, put in place legislation to contrast these developments. These regulations on the one hand reflected the increased awareness of the need to protect the artistic heritage and on the other hand, however, raised practices that might be defined as protectionist, discouraging exports even through the introduction of a heavy custom system [35]. Both on the supply and on the demand side, intermediaries were sought (as understandable) who could use the loopholes of the Pacca edict of 1820, if necessary using unorthodox means. Connoisseurs of people were perhaps more needed than connoisseurs of artworks, because in a system with many and often not respected rules, it was key to know those who had the right connections. Without any doubts, Gualandi had those features. Precisely for this reason, all his actions are subject to a double reading, one based on a neutral interpretation and the other more ambiguous.

The 1840s

In 1840 Michelangelo Gualandi began to publish his Memorie originali italiane. It goes without saying that, for him, this was a quantum leap, compared to the reports on the art exhibitions in Bologna of the years 1835 to 1837 [36]. He moved from contemporary art to art history, and from a traditional literary interpretation of the artworks to a strain of documentary research that had seen precedents and would see successors especially in the Tuscan area, thanks to the experiences of the Antologia Viesseux (Viesseux Anthology) before and of the Archivio storico italiano (Italian Historical Archive) then, i.e. periodic publications in turn more attentive to modern German historiography [37].

Examining in detail the contents and editorial history of the Memorie originali italiane and the Nuova raccolta di lettere goes beyond the scope of this note (I am planning to do it on another occasion). However, I would like to make some observations here.

In the presentation to the first volume of the Memoirs, Gualandi wrote: «The thought of collecting historical documents concerning the arts of drawing, both in a city and its province as well as in the entire nation, is not new in Italy ... My goal is to publish new unpublished or rare documents, which relate to the arts and artists; indeed, in order not to be seen as a servile collector, I have decided to add appropriate notes to the documents, in order  to illustrate them and make them more interesting»[38]. I would like to focus on the first sentence: I do not exclude at all that, among the reasons that led to the publication of the work there may have been patriotic accounts; in the title, the artistic memoirs were defined as ‘Italian’ and Gualandi spoke of documents concerning the whole ‘nation’. Of course, there were earlier examples such as Ludovico Antonio Muratori Annali d’Italia (Annals of Italy) or Luigi Lanzi's Storia pittorica della Italia (Pictorial History of Italy) that could speak against my thesis. The fact is that Gualandi's political precedents lead me to think that that adding the adjective "Italian" was intentional: the author may have made a prudent use of it to avoid censorship, but he meant to celebrate a "nation", for whose ideals he had been exiled just eight years before.

Whether or not there was a "patriotic" motivation (and this confirms the substantial ambiguity of figures like our Bolognese scholar) one thing is certain: with the publication of the Memoirs Gualandi attained at least two objectives. Firstly, he achieved fame. Gualandi saw himself as officially recognized as the "amatore delle belle arti" that he had already self-attributed to himself. Before 1839 Michelangelo could not claim another title than to be an honorary member of the Royal Academy of the Philomats of Sciences of Letters and Fine Arts of Lucca (from 1836). By 1846, thanks to a shrewd policy of distributing complimentary copies and to the support of Cesare Masini (who had not been appointed professor of painting at the Academy of Bologna in 1839 as Gualandi hoped, but became professor and president of that of Perugia until 1845 and then finally joined Bologna’s Accademia as Secretary) and of Carlo Ernesto Liverati, he had become a member of seventeen other academies. Of course, he was very proud of it, so much so as to bind all his diplomas in an elegant volume which is now preserved in the Archive of the Deputazione di Storia Patria in Bologna [39]. Among the many reviews two international ones stand out: Alfred von Reumont presented all the new releases in the German journal Kunstblatt (the First Series was reviewed in Volume I, No. 103 bearing the date 1840) and Carlo Pepoli (but in reality the review was published anonymously [40 ]) reviewed it in the British Art-Union of September 1842. Between 1853 and 1856, then, Ernst Karl Guhl published (in two volumes) his artists’ letters (the original title was Künstler-Briefe [41]) which was explicitly drawing from the epistolary collections of Bottari-Ticozzi and Gualandi.

The ultimate result of the editorial success was that Gualandi was handed over to history as a scholar. Even today the Memorie and the Nuova Raccolta di Lettera are cited in the scientific literature. We know Gualandi from his editorial activity between 1840 and 1846, with an appendix in 1856 (the last volume of the Letters was published in fact ten years after the previous one). As it is easy to understand, this is an extremely partial view, which is independent of the rest of the (objectively very local) printed production and does not consider the trade activity that even had so much weight in his life.

A second goal achieved with the publication of his collections was that, thanks to them, Gualandi created (or more probably consolidated) a scholarly network of correspondents covering a large part of Italy. And here it is to be clarified, as it results from the examination of the manuscripts ready for printing with relative original documents that, not infrequently, the Bolognese scholar limited himself to the role of pure curator, transcribing (and always quoting with great correctness) materials from correspondents such as Carlo d'Arco (Mantua), Ranieri Bartolini and Carlo Ernesto Liverati (Florence), Luciano and Enrico Scarabelli (Piacenza), Giuseppe Boschini (Ferrara), Giuseppe Campori (Modena), the abbot Cadorin (Venice ), Carlo Milanesi (Siena), Luigi Bonfatti (Gubbio), the De Minicis brothers (Fermo) and many others. In particular, Gualandi probably owed a debt of gratitude to his friend Carlo Ernesto Liverati (1805-1844), a Bolognese "historical painter" who, after a study experience in England, practiced in Florence [42]. Liverati, in addition to sending lots of documents, probably provided Gualandi with the right contacts to obtain from Leopold II, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, the authorisation to obtain useful extracts from the Medici archives, with a rescript dated 3 September 1841.

Correspondents and Trade

Behind this scholarly correspondence, however, there was almost always a commercial interest. The correspondents were seen as potential sellers of artistic assets and of course as customers in the trade of paintings, books, coins, drawings and prints. Michelangelo himself sometimes took the initiative. Thus, for example, in a letter dated December 15, 1855, Gualandi wrote to the Modenese Marquis Giuseppe Campori (1821-1887), whose uncle had just passed away:

«I would appreciate a catalogue of the paintings that you will receive in inheritance; if they are ancient I would like to receive a (confidential) information whether you intend to alienate them or not. If yes, let us please achieve an exclusive contractual relationship, of which you would be certainly happy; I have such a circle of acquaintances to hope for success, as just proven in these past days» [43].

In these few lines Gualandi condensed two pieces of information: first of all, he was not the only monopolist trader, as there were many competitors; secondly, he was mainly interested in old paintings (contrary to what the Scarabelli catalogue of 1843 would suggest [44]).

The recourse to the letter correspondents for mercantile purposes was, in fact, not unusual in those dates. In the opposite direction (i.e. as an attempt to sell an already acquired work) was, for example, the letter accompanying a brochure in Italian and French entitled L’adorazione dei Magi. Pittura del XVI secolo (The Adoration of the Magi. 16th century painting) that Gualandi sent to Pelagio Palagi on 4 April 1853 [45].

«Here is a bilingual article [Italian and French] of mine that concerns, as you will see, our painting school; please pass one of the five copies to the Academy and distribute the others to people fit to make good use of them.»

The "good use" to which Gualandi referred simply means that they might be interested in buying the painting. All the details in the brochure were aimed at attracting the attention of the collectors and convincing them about the good origin and attribution of the picture. Thus, the text included the expertise by Giuseppe Guizzardi, Napoleone Angiolini and Clemente Alberi, all professors at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, and the indication that the painting had been acquired on February 18, 1853 from the Galleria Marescalchi [46].

Sometimes, instead, the indications, the requests and the suggestions were much less professional, and beyond the comradely tones, they exhibited a glimpse of unscrupulousness, which is an element to keep always in mind when assessing his personality. Thus, for example, twenty years earlier, on May 29, 1837, he gave advice to Cincinnato Baruzzi (to whom he used to write in very amicable tone). In particular, he invited him to turn to Pelagio Palagi in Turin to sell his Leda, the only statue left unsold among those that the artist had brought to the Exhibition at the Academy of Fine Arts in Milan in the same year:

«And the unfortunate Leda? Neglected because innocent! Abomination of the alleged human race! You should think, act, and do everything to find a dog who at least loves to hunt the swan; then (you say well) you should donate Tindar’s vicious wife. Give it a try. Write to Palagi about the overall result of Milan and mention that the Leda which he knows and greatly praised has remained unsold. Let him free to decide to whom he could offer it in Turin, propose to send him to him, etc. etc.» [47].

The tone sounds a little disrespectful towards an artist (i.e. Palagi) to whom Gualandi himself, about a month before, had addressed a plea to find him a job in Turin at the Royal Court:

"When you will return to Turin, you think a little about me: I am here as a vagabond, when I wish, and I should take advantage of the years that are happening ... please think a little about me, find me a corner which could be useful to me, and hopefully to others; working hard never weighed on me, I have learned from childhood to get used to long vigils. I love the arts, and what relates to them»[48].

Gualandi and Eastlake

Gualandi and Eastlake meet each other for the first time in 1855 [49]. This was what the Bolognese scholar wrote to the Marquis Giuseppe Campori on October 25th of that year:

«Last week, the famous Sir Eastlake, the author, as you know, of a beautiful volume on painting translated by Bezzi, and a rare painter to what I hear, director of the London Academy, etc. etc., passed by. He declared himself my friend, promised me his correspondence, his commissions and proved it by writing to me from Venice; with the beginning of November he will be back in London with his Lady, whom I feel to be erudite like her husband» [50].

Eastlake's work to which Gualandi referred is the fundamental Materials for a History of Oil Painting (only the first volume was published during his life, while the second was curated posthumously by his wife, Elizabeth Rigby) [51]. Giovanni A. Bezzi had provided, just two years later, the translation into Italian [52]. For his part, Eastlake certainly knew Gualandi by name. In 1846 Mrs. Merrifield, sent to Italy in search of manuscripts on the techniques of oil painting of the ancient Italian masters, once received the offer by Gualandi for the two frescoes carried on canvas by Cesi and for a Carracci, had postponed any decision and decided to report it to the English scholar, once back home [53]. Furthermore, at the end of the trip, the female scholar sent from Milan a series of books that were mostly destined for Eastlake himself. They included different titles of Gualandi (among which the first five series of the Memoirs) [54]. Although Eastlake's library actually included a much larger number of Gualandi’s works, evidently received later by the Italian, it is very likely that the first entries of Michelangelo's works among his shelves occurred in this period [55].

I do not exclude, however, that Eastlake may have contacted Gualandi also because of his reputation as a book dealer. In January 1855 (ten months before the meeting between the two) Michelangelo always wrote to the Marquis Campori:

«I am sending you a copy of my small catalogue of books printed only in 50 copies. I did it for my convenience to get fees from England, from where I expect some feedback. If you ever found something that you would please to receive and was still unsold within a month, please give me notice of it» [56].

And, always remaining in the field of books, in September 1856 the Bolognese published the third and final volume (even if he promised a fourth one) of the Nuova Raccolta di Lettere. Ten years had passed since the previous volume and, obviously, something had gone wrong (besides the outbreak of the First Independence War). Concluding the volume, Gualandi wrote as follows:

«We are more than ever indebted to show ourselves grateful to those who encourage us with words and facts to continue in our endeavours, despite the impediments of all nature that created and still create obstacle to the studies, to which we dedicated our every thought. We may not be able to make known in these pages the name of an illustrious foreigner to whom the Arts and Letters owe most celebrated works; accept at least, in your secret, the senses of our indelible gratitude» [57].

All in all, I would not be surprised if it were discovered, even in the light of the close collaboration of the following years, that this mysterious foreigner was Charles L. Eastlake.

The first, tangible, prove that Gualandi was acting as an agent for Eastlake dates back to 1858. On September 12th of that year someone (probably Ubaldo Sgherbi, agent of the marquis Costabili) wrote to the director of the National Gallery (then in the Marche) saying that the Ferrarese nobleman was very surprised to have received a letter in which he subordinated the receipt of the agreed price for the purchase of two paintings of the collection to the attainment of the relative export permit. The writer pointed out that the request for such permission was up to the purchaser, and confirmed full willingness to send the two works to Bologna, and notably to «your friend Mr. Gualandi», it being understood that on delivery of the works he expected to receive the delivery of cash [58]. In the correspondence the two pictures were not mentioned; however, it seems to me that on the basis of the internal evidence of Eastlake's Travel Notebooks and (above all) of the coeval catalogues of the National Gallery there can be little doubt that it was the Saint Vincent Ferrer now attributed to Francesco del Cossa and kept at the National Gallery with inventory number NG597 and the Saint Francis with Angels by Sandro Botticelli (NG598). It should be noted that, when they were purchased, they were attributed respectively to Marco Zoppo and Filippino Lippi [59]. 

Fig. 3) Francesco Del Cossa. Saint Vincent Ferrer (originally central panel of the Griffoni altarpiece in the Church of S. petronio, Bologna). Purchased in 1858 as Marco Zoppo, Saint Dominic institutor of the Rosary. Source: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/francesco-del-cossa-saint-vincent-ferrer

Figure 4) Sandro Botticelli. Saint Francis of Assisi with Angels. Purchased in 1858 with attribution to Filippino Lippi. Source: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/sandro-botticelli-saint-francis-of-assisi-with-angels

About a month later, on 26^th October 1858, Eastlake, on his way back to England, wrote from Turin informing the Marquis Costabili that Gualandi had written to him: The case containing the two works was being sent to Livorno from where it was intended to be dispatched to England [60]; he took the opportunity to ask (slyly emphasizing that, by themselves, these paintings were worth little) whether he could purchase for a total of 100 Napoleons the Virgin and Saints of Pisanello, two small pictures attributed to Lorenzo Costa and one to Cosmè Tura [61]. The Marquis disdainfully refused, clarifying that the purchases should be made in bulk. However, apparently pushed to more mild advice by the ruinous family economic situation, he ended up adhering to the request for the end of 1860. On 3 December 1860 Giuseppe Molteni, a Milanese restorer trusted by Eastlake, wrote to Giovanni Morelli, informing him that the work by Pisanello was on the way, purchased together with a Saint Jerome from Bono da Ferrara and another Saint Jerome  by Cosmè Tura [62]. In the end, the accompanying paintings of Pisanello changed (initially for Cosmè Tura, Eastalke had asked for a Madonna adoring the Child), but the deal had been concluded [63].

A few more details on the purchase of these works is now available, in the light of a quick note, really a reminder, that I was able to find in a loose piece of a Gualandi manuscript entitled Gite artistiche in alcune città della media e meridionale Italia nell’anno 1861 (Artistic trips in some cities of the middle and south Italy in the year 1861) preserved in the Archive of the Fondazione Carisbo in Bologna [64]. The leaflet, folded in four, contains the following wording in pen:

“N[apoleons?]                  Van Eyck Zambeccari      140
                                          guardian                            2
                                          for me                                24
                                          expenses                            3
                                          [Total]                                170       

N[apoleons?]                    Costabili                             175
                                          Sgherbi                               12
                                          expenses                             3
                                          [Total]                                190

12/11/[18]60                    Nap.                                    360

At Renoli’s, where there are also about Napol ... [not indicated]. "

Fig. 5) Notes on purchases from the Zambeccari and Costabili collections in 1860. Bologna, Archive of the Carisbo Foundation, Fondo Ambrosini C XII op. 559, "Artistic trips in some cities of the middle and southern Italy", fasc. 1/15, loose paper

Given that Giovanni Battista Renoli was a banker practicing in Bologna [65], it is clear that, with this note, dated November 1860, drafted only a a few days before the aforementioned letter from Molteni to Morelli, Gualandi was writing a memo concerning payments relating to two contracts: the first concerning the Zambeccari collection; the second attaining to the purchase by Eastlake of the three works of which we have just spoken. Compared to the initial offer (which, however, in addition to Pisanello, included other three small pictures) the transaction was concluded at a higher price (175 Napoleons instead of 100). Eastlake took charge, in addition to the expenses, of the commission for Sgherbi, agent of Costabili, in the order of 7%.

The ‘Van Eyck’ of the Zambeccari Collection was also sold to Eastlake, for his private collection. This was the Virgin and Child with Saints Peter and Paul, which is today at the National Gallery in London with inventory number NG774 and is attributed to the workshop of Dierick Bouts (1400? -1475). 

Figure 6) Dierick Bouts workshop. Virgin and Child with Saints Peter and Paul. Bought in 1860 from the Zambeccari collection. Source: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/workshop-of-dirk-bouts-the-virgin-and-child-with-saint-peter-and-saint-paul

To my knowledge, the work has not been connected so far in Italy with the table kept in the English museum [66], but it seems to me that there are no doubts. Described at n. 29 in the inventory of the paintings performed on the death of Giacomo Zambeccari (1795) as «a painting painted on a panel representing the Blessed Virgin with the Child, and two other high Saints 1:10 Feet Wide Feet 1: 5 of the Flame School, Carved frame, and gilded», it was attributed by Gaetano Giordani to Van Eyck in his inventory of 1850 [67]. The picture was seen in August 1856 by Otto Mündler (Travelling Agent of the National Gallery) who assigned it in turn to Hugo van der Goes: "A beautifully painted composition, interior of a church with a subject of sacred history by an early flemish artist, such as Hugo van der Goes – Large price asked" [68]. Charles Lock Eastlake also saw the work in September 1857 and, in doubt, agreed with Mündler on the paternity of van der Goes: «M. and C. enthroned - St Peter and St Paul at sides - wood 1–8 ½ w. about 2 - 3 h. perhaps Vander Goes - price 100 Nap.» [69]. We did not know until now in what circumstances the table had left the collection: it did so at the end of 1860, and was sold at a final price of 140 Napoleons, higher than the initial figure indicated by Eastlake (it is not clear, however, if it were a new assessment of the value of the framework or, less likely, the seller's initial request). Bought by the director of the National Gallery for his personal collection, it was then resold by his wife to the museum in 1867. It should be noted that the price of the 'Van Eyck' alone was almost equal to that of three paintings taken from the Costabili collection, including the Pisanello which today has a much higher price. What made the difference were probably the attribution (van Eyck or van der Goes that it was) and the general conditions of the panel. Finally, the commission for Gualandi was 24 Napoleons, a very high percentage (17%) compared to 7% that Sgherbi managed to achieve for the Costabili paintings (provided that those 24 Napoleons did not include, in turn, the amount that Eastlake recognized to the Bolognese for the success in the purchase of the Ferrara works).

Naturally Gualandi and Eastlake kept a correspondence, which to date is missing. The Gualandi papers at the Deputazione di Storia Patria delle province della Romagna retain, as mentioned, the list of correspondents of the Bolognese scholar, also including the director of the National Gallery. I hope to be able to understand soon whether those letters have been preserved within the correspondence (in the phase of reorganization) now preserved at the University of Frankfurt [70]. In the absence of the letters, however, it may be important to consult a Gualandi manuscript which I tracked down at the Fondazione Carisbo in Bologna and which I will call (for simplicity) Artistic tour of 1861 [71]. I intend to present an annotated edition of the manuscript in the near future. For now it seems essential to point out some elements. The first is, of course, the date of the journey: it was March 1861. Following the war events (Second War of Independence (1859) and Expedition of the Thousand (1860)), the Romagna and the Marche, which were part of the Papal State, decided, with plebiscites held between March and November of the previous year, to join the Kingdom of Sardinia, which on March 17, 1861 officially changed its name to Kingdom of Italy. It was a historic date: united Italy was born. And yet, on March 17, 1861, the patriot Gualandi, who had been waiting for this moment all his life, was not participating in his Bologna in some solemn ceremony celebrating the event, but was between Cagli and Gubbio, looking for potentially purchasable paintings for Eastlake and for himself. The merchant had won over the patriot. From the heritage point of view, these were very delicate days. With decrees of the previous year the (provisional) Commissioners of Romagna and Marche, respectively Gioacchino Pepoli and Lorenzo Valerio, had referred to the legislation of the Kingdom of Sardinia as regards the management of the assets of various ecclesiastical orders. These orders were suppressed (the Kingdom of Sardinia had already done so in previous years) and the relative assets confiscated by the State. In the specific case, the Commissioners had decided (believing in perfect good faith to meet the needs of the territories), that the artworks should become the property of the respective municipalities. In reality, the municipalities knew very little about the real extent of the heritage and were unable to ensure adequate protection; the closure of many churches had, however, led to serious problems linked to the management of private property patronage present in the former sacred buildings. Should they end up in the town halls or go back to private owners? The total uncertainty and the precarious financial situation had meant that suddenly many artworks were put on the market. Eastlake was clearly aware of this situation and, without any delay, instructed Gualandi (in turn interested in the purchase of works) to monitor the territory. So, the Artistic tour of 1861 is not at all a pleasure trip, but the most up-to-date account we know of the heritage situation before the Italian government's counteraction, which from April 27 to July 9, 1961, sent Giovanni Morelli and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle to create an inventory of the artistic heritage of suppressed churches and convents [72]. It has a historical value, and a clear trade connotation. For these reasons it deserves a separate study.

The main problem related to the relations between Eastlake and Gualandi is that we know, for better or worse, the situations that led to the purchase of works on behalf of the National Gallery or for the personal collection of the English scholar. However, we know nothing of failed attempts. Nevertheless, a lucky coincidence allows us to shed light on one of them. In September 1861 (shortly before the trip to Naples, therefore) Eastlake was in Modena and identified in Casa Coccapani a painting that was eligible (i.e. suitable for purchase by the National Gallery). It was a Santa Barbara by Francesco Francia which was so described: «Francia – Santa Barbara – with her Tower on [[embraced and held by]] her left arm – an arrow in her right – half figure- signed in gold letters “Francia Aurifex” – requires a very little putting in order, but apparently has never been restored – El." [73]. On 26 December 1861 (returning from the Neapolitan journey with the director of the National Gallery) Gualandi wrote to his Modenese friend Giuseppe Campori and presented a request: "I am asking you a favour. The noble Coccapani house has some paintings including two from Francia and particularly a half figure of s. Barbara with the painter's name. Could you please kindly visit the Lady [note of the editor: widow of husband Ercole Coccapani for just a month; he had died on 11 November 1861] and induce her to surrender the tablet at fair conditions? You would make it an indelible merit; try this and console me with a sign of success "[74]. Nothing came of it, but it is clear that Gualandi acted on Eastlake's instructions.

Figura 7) Francesco Francia, S. Barbara. Source: https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/francesco-francia-bologna-c-1450-1517-saint-barbara-6068910-details.aspx

We have no written mention, to the contrary, to prove that Gualandi intermediated the purchase of the Madonna with Child and Saints by Benvenuto Tisi called Garofalo from the Mazza collection in Ferrara (NG671) [75], at the end of 1860. However, the fact that all the purchases in that city (which Michelangelo knew well and often frequented because his wife was from Ferrara) were operated through the Bolognese scholar, leads me to believe that even this one case does not escape the rule. A second purchase from the Mazza collection was made by Gualandi at the end of 1866.

Figure 8) Benvenuto Tisi called Garofalo. Virgin and Child with Saints. Source: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/garofalo-the-virgin-and-child-enthroned-with-saints

Again on Ferrara, Gualandi turned again his attention to the Costabili collection, as shown in a letter to the Marquis sent on 10^th October, informing him he had visited it again there together with Eastlake, his wife Elizabeth Rigby and Otto Mündler on 4^th October. He attached a list of eighteen paintings (plus the bronze door knocker) for which his English principal would like to know the prices. This was the list of works (with the attributions given at the time): [76]

«Marked paintings from the Galleria Costabili

Numb.    Subjects                                                                  Authors cited

N. 29     Holy picture standing within a niche                     ... ..

N. 53     Madonna, Child and two angels                           Botticelli

N. 70     A small Saint Jerome with the lion                         ...

N. 151   Madonna, Child Saints and Angels                        Lorenzo Costa

N. 156   Manna of the Hebrews                                           Ercole Grandi

N. 158  Journey with Moses                                                the same

No. 201 Madonna, Child, and Saint Joseph. Fresco           Garofalo

No. 225 Madonna, Child, and Saints, small with ape          Ercole Grandi

N. 226   St. Cecilia full figure                                               Garofalo

N. 231   Presentation at the Temple, little                            Dom. Panetti

N. 245 and 246  Two small pictures in a very […]              Mazzolino

N. 255   Small s. Family, ruined                                          Garofalo

N. 308   Pietà, two figurines                                                Mazzolino

N. 428   Madonna and Child, small square                         Ercolino

N. 498   Portrait of a child standing                                    ...

N. 531   Two portraits, ruined table                                     ...

…          In the dining room, half a figure of Santa              Pordenone?

 ...          The front door leaf in bronze. » 

Many (but not all) of the works in question were also cited by Eastlake in his Travel Notebooks. In particular, exactly on 4 October 1862 (the already mentioned day of the joint visit with his wife, Gualandi and Mündler) the director of the National Gallery wrote a «List of pictures selected, with a view to ascertain price» which included eight of the eighteen paintings for which Gualandi asked for information six days later [77]. On 12 October 1862, an answer letter was sent to Gualandi indicating the prices attached. Unfortunately, the sheet with Costabili's requests is not present among the Costabili cards in Ferrara. It seems that this time, any transaction was achieved.

The commercial relations between Eastlake and Gualandi continued in practice until the death of the English scholar, which occurred in Pisa on Christmas Eve of 1865. The last two purchases were the Madonna of the Humility by Lippo di Dalmasio, from the Bolognese Hercolani collection (NG752) [78] and  a Virgin with Child by Giovanni Santi, from the  Mazza collection in Ferrara (NG751). 

Fig. 9) Lippo di Dalmasio, Madonna of Humility. Source: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/lippo-di-dalmasio-the-madonna-of-humility

Figura 10) Giovanni Santi. Madonna with the Child. Source: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/giovanni-santi-the-virgin-and-child

Probably jointly shipped to London, the two works had been possibly purchased with a very different decision-making process. As for the table by Lippo, Eastlake had already reported it to the museum's Trustees at the end of 1861 [79], the purchase of Giovanni Santi's work was instead a last-minute decision, and was intertwined with the death of the English connoisseur. On November 27, 1865, with her husband very sick, Elizabeth Rigby wrote from Pisa to Ralph Nicholson Wornum, Keeper of the National Gallery, and invited him to send forty pounds to Gualandi, thanks to which the English scholar could pre-empt the purchase (in Gualandi’s name, but with the pact of resale it to the museum) of a painting attributed by Cavalcaselle to Giovanni Santi. There was a certain urgency, because the aim was to conclude the deal before the judgment of Cavalcaselle would become known, avoiding that the agreed price (one hundred and twenty pounds) would upsurge [80].

A slow decline

One thing seems certain: with the death of Eastlake, which Gualandi honoured with a short obituary in the newspaper Il Monitore di Bologna n. 354, year 1865 [81], the great "trade" season ceased; or, better, it was confined again to a local scope, as it had already happened with regard to the printed works.

We know, from a letter to Campori of 16 June 1866, that Michelangelo met William Boxall (1800-1879), the new director of the museum, on the latter's first trip to Italy, but it is obvious that something went wrong [82]. In a further letter, in the early 1870s, Gualandi told Campori that he had bought the painting by Giovanni Santi on behalf of Eastlake and was curious to know if the work was now exhibited at the National Gallery. He would like to consult the latest edition of the museum guide, but he did not own it, "as I did not want to continue my relations with the successor, a too original, crazy and intractable man" [83].

Of course there were plenty of opportunities for gratification, which Michelangelo recalled in his short autobiography: the meeting with the King of Italy and his wife, the appointment as a knight by the Emperor of Brazil for having accompanied him around Bologna during his visit, and the active participation in the life of the Deputazione di Storia Patria [84]. These were however all episodes of little importance, seen in a historical perspective. Equally, we would fall into insignificant anecdotes, or even ridicule Gualandi, if we pointed out occasions where he used the (dishonest) practices of a trivial merchant to make extra profits [85].

While the Bolognese scholar was proceeding towards a slow but inexorable decline that led him to die at 94, it remains to be understood what the real consistency of his art collection at the end of his life was.

In December 1856, communicating to Pelagio Palagi that he was under eviction and that by 8 May of the following year he would have to vacate the premises of the Fava Palace, Gualandi stated:

«I am forced to leave the space I occupy in the Fava Palace and here I am in despair: I do not know where to beat the head to find another apartment in a central place that offers what is required to put in sight over 200 paintings, 6 thousand volumes, thousands of drawings, of prints, of ancient garments, etc. I do not want to imagine what will happen on 8 May 1857!» [86]

In the early 1880s, instead, Michelangelo, immediately after speaking in the autobiography of his collaboration with Eastlake, added:

"In the meantime, I have never stopped to collect privately what was interesting to me, so after a few years I have found myself to be the owner of about 400 paintings (including some of my fellow citizens) adorned with similar frames adapted to the different school, and not few of which rich in carvings and gilding; of some hundreds of drawings; other hundreds of prints and not a few original carvings in metal or wood"[87].

The paintings have therefore increased with time from over 200 to 400. These are figures that substantially Michelangelo confirmed to Giovan Battista Cavalcaselle in a letter of 7 August 1880. The letter was written when he was already eighty-seven years old, and was perhaps uncertain on the succession of events (he thought that Cavalcaselle was living in London, added that he had had no contact with that city since the death of Eastlake and beg him to greet his widow, if still alive), but still always lucid [88]. It is not at all clear why Gualandi decided not to follow the example of many of his illustrious fellow citizens by giving away at least his documents and the library to the Archiginnasio, perhaps in exchange for an annuity to his heirs. Most likely he urgently needed money. On October 13, 1883, a year and a half after having sold his library and the archives of the manuscript documents to the firm of Joseph Baer, ​​a bookseller and publisher in Frankfurt am Main, Gualandi let a friend of Ferrara (who simply signed it and I have not been able to identify) write to Count Revedin. Through the letter, he proposed to the count, who has suffered the cancellation of the purchase of the Zambeccari collection (a story that we have mentioned in the footnotes and that has dragged on for many years [89]), to buy his collection, not much inferior (according to the writer) to the one which he had been forced by a court judgment to forsake [90]. Nothing happened.

Two years later a brochure with an eloquent title was printed: Collection of the knight Michelangelo Gualandi of paintings, drawings, albums, prints, engravings, engraved branches, sculptures, ancient and different objects existing in Via S. Felice N. 65 (1st Floor) in Bologna. Daily sale from 12 sundials to 2 pm, Bologna, Military typography, 1886. It offered a summary inventory in which the numbers were however much reduced compared to what Gualandi declared in his autobiography (the paintings, for example, were 266). These were, of course, the final sales. Michelangelo Gualandi died on June 19, 1887. With deed n. 2880 of 13 September 1887 of the notary Giovanni Pradella, the succession to the advantage of the four nephews of the deceased was opened: a rather generic inventory was presented, which quantifies in 247 the number of the paintings that would become part of the hereditary axis. We know nothing about the ways in which the collection was dispersed and who the buyers were. The name of Michelangelo Gualandi was lost in the silence and oblivion to which perhaps such a long life had contributed.

NOTES

[1] Archivio della Deputazione di Storia Patria per le Province di Romagna, deposited at the Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna, Papers by Michelangelo Gualandi, busta 131 fasc. 14, «Alcune notizie intorno Michelangelo Gualandi di Bologna» (Some news about Michelangelo Gualandi of Bologna).

[2] M. Gualandi, Memorie originali italiane risguardanti le belle arti. Six series, Bologna, 1840-1845 (but 1846).

[3] Nuova raccolta di lettere sulla pittura, scultura ed architettura: scritte da più celebri personaggi dei secoli XV. a XIX / con note e illustrazioni di Michelangelo Gualandi; in aggiunta a quella data in luce da Bottari e dal Ticozzi, Three volumes, Bologna 1844-1856.

[4] Carteggio inedito d’artisti dei secoli XIV, XV, XVI pubblicato ed illustrato con documenti pure inediti dal Dott. Giovanni Gaye (Unpublished correspondence of artists of the XIV, XV, and XVI centuries, published and illustrated with also unpublished documents by Dr. Giovanni Gaye, Three volumes, Florence, 1839-1840.

[5] The events affecting Gualandi’s archives are complicated and, in many ways, still to be clarified. I hope to have the chance to do it in the future. Here I would to offer this summary information: in May 1882, at the age of eighty-nine, Michelangelo Gualandi sold all his library and archival materials (including correspondence) to the bookseller of Frankfurt Joseph Baer. It is difficult to follow the dispersion of books and manuscripts from here on. According to the Report of the Librarian of Congress and Report of the Superintendent of the Library Building and Grounds for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1914, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1914, p. 35 «in November [most probably of 1913] was added a collection of 1,557 volumes and pamphlets (bound in 199 volumes) relating to the arts and artist of Italy gathered together by Michelangelo Gualandi» (it is assumed that the Library of Congress purchased the collection from Baer). The volumes were probably absorbed in the library's collection, while the "pamphlets" were classified in a single file in the Library of Congress's Old Catalogue. Unfortunately, I have no more information on their content. Not all the manuscripts that belonged to Gualandi (or of which he was the author) were sold to Baer. In Bologna there are three distinct archival units with his papers. That of the Deputazione di Storia Patria per le Province di Romagna (see note 1, buste 130 and 131) is undoubtedly the most coherent, because it contains personal papers (beginning with the aforementioned autobiography) which were retained by the Bolognese scholar, who rearranged and left them to the Deputation after the transaction with Baer. Of particular note is that the busta 130, fasc. 4 containing the rubric of Gualandi correspondents (over six hundred) with the explicit indication that the correspondence was transferred to Baer: «Carteggio particolare per molti anni di Uomini distinti, Artisti e Negozianti con Michelangelo Gualandi. Fa parte della vendita della Libreria fatta ai noti Librai di Francoforte Gius. Baer e Comp» (Special correspondence for many years of distinguished Men, Artists and Dealers with Michelangelo Gualandi. It is part of the sale of the Library made to the famous booksellers of Frankfurt Gius. Baer and Comp). The other archives are located at the Archiginnasio Library of Bologna (see http://badigit.comune.bologna.it/fondi/fondi/257.htm) and at the Ambrosini fund of the Fondazione Carisbo  in Bologna. It is not known when Raimondo Ambrosini (1855-1914) came into possession of the Gualandi documents, and whether he bought them or received them as a gift from him or later (perhaps even from Baer). The Raccolta di opere riguardanti Bologna nella biblioteca di Raimondo Ambrosini (Collection of works concerning Bologna in the library of Raimondo Ambrosini; Bologna, A. Garagnani, 1906) listed, among others, all the documents belonging to Gualandi in the collection, but it is not entirely reliable, because Lorenzo Ambrosini, son of Raimondo, after the death of his father, alienated a part of it due to financial problems, selling the bulk to the Cassa di Risparmio di Bologna in 1948. The Ambrosini Fund is not yet computerized, which is why the real consistency of the documents belonging to Gualandi which are part of it can only be deduced by consulting the paper catalogue. What is certain, however, is that a large part of the manuscript material forming part of the sale of 1882 to Joseph Baer remained with the German publisher until the end of his activity, in 1938. When and in what way (if at the moment of the closure or following the bombings of the Second World War) the residual material ended up at the University library Johann Christian Senckenberg of Frankfurt is a circumstance that I ignore. This library has made available online some of the manuscripts owned or written by Gualandi, but only recently the review of the material has made it possible to understand that it also includes all (or almost all) correspondence and administrative documents of the Bolognese scholar. The material is being reorganized, with the hope that it will soon be available to the public.

To complicate matters further it must be said that Gualandi, before selling to Baer, ​​at least on one occasion gave part of his cards to his Venetian friend Andrea Tessier (and it cannot be excluded that he did something like that with others). This is the case of Ms. Codex 471 of the University of Pennsylvania which is titled «Documenti artistici di scuola ferrarese, parte originali, parte copie [del Arch. comunale e Arch. notarile di Ferrara], e fac-simile, mandati in dono in più volte da Luigi Napoleone Cittadella, ora 1862 bibliotecario del comune, a Michelangelo Gualandi»  (Artistic documents of the Ferrara school, original parts, copies [of the municipal Arch and notarial Archive of Ferrara], and facsimile, sent as a gift in several times from Luigi Napoleone Cittadella, now 1862 librarian of the municipality, to Michelangelo Gualandi» (unvisited material), donated to Tessier in 1881.

[6] For reasons which I do not know, in many international repertoires, Gualandi’s death is wrongly timed in 1865 instead of 1887 (curiously 1793-1865 were the same years of birth and death of Charles L. Eastlake). Gualandi's name was Angelo Michele, like his grandfather. To distinguish himself, he began as a young man to call himself Michelangelo. And it is so (or like Michele Angelo) that he is always mentioned, even on the tombstone of his tomb, at the Certosa di Bologna. Finally, it must be said that he should not be confused with the lawyer Angelo Gualandi (not even a relative), who was born in 1828 and died in 1903, also a historian and scholar from Bologna.

[7] Gualandi spent his whole life trying to build a connection between his family and ancestors of high lineage. This was a fairly common costume at the time, but which undoubtedly, in this specific case, revealed a sense of inferiority towards the circles of Italian scholarship, mostly composed of members of aristocratic families. For example, see the files 2 and 3 of the envelope 130 of the Gualandi cards in the Deputazione di Storia Patria, which was titled respectively «Trees of the Gualandi family from Pisa and their branches in Romagna and elsewhere. Blazoned coats of arms» and «News about the Gualandi family of Pisa and Gualandi of Bologna since the 12th century ». It is no coincidence that his autobiography was preceded by the motto «Gualandi con Sismondi e con Lanfranchi» (Gualandi with Sismondi and with Lanfranchi), a verse taken from the Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto XXXIII). The Gualandis mentioned by Dante were indeed an ancient Pisan family.

[8] In the Archive of the Deputazione di Storia Patria, Gualandi papers, envelope 130 fascicle 6 («Ben-serviti commerciali, che civili, che militari…» i.e. about roles served in commerce, civil life and military) Michelangelo appeared to have been in the service of the Bolognese (but with French origin) banker Luigi Couderc from 1807 to 1813, holding «double writing in French, and correspondence»; to be part of the Napoleonic army in Italy as 'cashier' in 1814; to be in talks with a Swiss company to manage the business of disembarking / boarding it at the port of Livorno in 1818; and finally, on March 13, 1820, he was appointed attorney general in Italy of the Bolognese merchant (also of clear French origins) Nicodemus Laplanche.

[9] The University of Frankfurt (as already mentioned) has put online some of Gualandi's manuscripts. They include, for instance, four of the six series of the Memorie Originali Italiane, ready for the printing. On these specimens Michelangelo carried out the latest corrections, and he did this by gluing pieces of paper to the manuscripts that on the back were already used (paper was expensive and he did not want to waste it). In the manuscript relating to the First series, a correction was inserted on the back of which is the first part of the letter in question. See Ms. lat. qu 97 Bd1 http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/msneuz/urn/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:2-222503, c. 213b.

[10] These were two lunettes originally in the chapel of the SS. Virgin of the Cathedral of Imola. The two frescoes were transported on canvas in 1774 when the Imola cathedral was demolished, in order to be then rebuilt according to a new project. Gualandi bought them from the Dalla Volpe family in 1824. See G. Mazzaferro (edited by), La donna che amava i colori. Mary P. Merrifield. Lettere dall’Italia 1845-1846, Milan, Officina Libraria, 2018, p. 158 note 8.

[11] It should be noted that the copy that can be consulted on the Internet through Google Books shows, in the counter-plate, together with a G47 signature, the phrase (probably written by Andrea Tessier): «The Editor, and partly author, is Michelangelo Gualandi». The copy is kept in the University of Pennsylvania (see end of note 5).

[12] M. Gualandi, Memorie Originali Italiane... cit., First Series, p. 48 note 3: «This beautiful medium-sized painting [note of the editor: An Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the earthly Paradise of Francesco Albani, painted between 1647 and 1649] was in the aforementioned year 1828 transmitted to the ownership of Mr. Park in Great Britain, an indefatigable receiver of Italian artworks. When he left, the buyer brought with him that painting, which had suffered some injury, to England.»

[13] Via dei Libri in Bologna corresponds to the current Via Farini. It should be noted that Gualandi’s office was located opposite to the Caffè della Barchetta, at that time a meeting place for liberals and Masons.

[14] The relative original documentation (accompanied by a large collection of revolutionary newspapers) is kept in the special fund Announcements, notifications and documents of the period 1831-1832 in the Archiginnasio Library in Bologna, (http://badigit.comune.bologna.it/fondi/fondi/257.htm). Until the fall of the Papal States, this must have been ‘hot’ evidence, which Gualandi also kept at his own risk.

[15] A. Sorbelli (ed.), Libro dei compromessi politici nella rivoluzione del 1831-32 (Book of political compromises in the revolution of 1831-32), Roma-Vittoriano, 1935, p. 73.

[16] C. Manelli, E. Bonvicini, S. Sarri, La massoneria a Bologna dal XVIII al XX secolo, Bologna (The free masons  in Bologna from the 18th to the 20th century), Bologna, 1986. I consulted the ebook version of 2014, without page indication.

[17] Archivio della Deputazione di Storia Patria, Gualandi Cards, envelope 141 fasc. 14, «Some news about Michelangelo Gualandi of Bologna», c. 5.

[18] Archivio della Deputazione di Storia Patria, Gualandi Cards, envelope 130 fasc. 5, «Competition for an Inspector Demonstrator at the Municipal Cemetery", sub-file "Plea by Michelangelo Gualandi to the Illustrious Judiciary, to the Most Excellent Hearing Rector, to the Most Illustrious Council, concerning the next appointment the Inspector Guardian of the Municipal Cemetery of Bologna» on October 13, 1845. It should be noted that  the same folder also included a certificate signed by three Bolognese public accountants (also dated 1845) stating that Gualandi was perfectly acquainted with the double-entry accounting, and that he was using it with particular skills in the exercise of activities related to commercial agencies.

[19] Biblioteca Comunale dell'Archiginnasio, Bologna, Special Fund Cincinnato Baruzzi, envelope 6.1: Forty-five letters from Gualandi to the sculptor are preserved, concerning trips or stays of the same in Milan and Rome (1837 and 1839). The chair of the new Professorship of Painting was, in reality, disputed between Clemente Albèri, son of the previous owner, Lucchini and the elderly Giuseppe Guizzardi. See Gian Piero Cammarota, Le origini della pinacoteca nazionale di Bologna. Una raccolta di fonti. Vol. II. Dalla rifondazione all’autonomia (1815-1907) (The Origins of the National Picture Gallery in Bologna. A collection of sources. Vol. II. From the re-foundation to autonomy (1815-1907)), Bologna, Minerva, 2004, p. 55. Masini’s candidacy, advocated by Gualandi, but never formalized, was probably not yet ripe, as above all it lacked an important sponsor: Gualandi at that time had no office within the Institute, of which he became an honorary member only in the November 1846. However, the familiarity with academic circles is surprising, allowing him to send Baruzzi detailed reports of the meetings of the Institute in very short times.

[20] See Johann Christian Senckenberg University Library in Frankfurt, Ms. lat. qu. 97 Bd. 2 http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/msneuz/urn/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:2-222521#dcId=1571239300277&p=1, c. 380b.

[21] See Johann Christian Senckenberg University Library in Frankfurt, Ms. lat. qu. 97 Bd. 1 http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/msneuz/urn/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:2-222503#dcId=1571239300277&p=1 c. 276.

[22] One thing is certain: both the headquarters of the Zambeccari Palace in the proximity of the S. Paul church and that of the Fava Palace (where Gualandi rented until 1857 the rooms frescoed by the Carraccis with the cycle of Jason and Medea) were extremely prestigious. The collection of paintings by the Zambeccari family was very famous and occupied the noble floor of their building. What made it special was the fact that two successive generations, namely those of Francesco (who died in 1767) and his son Giacomo (who died in 1795) had explicitly made efforts to keep the collection intact and accessible to Bolognese and foreigners. In fact, with Giacomo's testamentary dispositions, the Zambeccari collection took on a hybrid nature, in which private property was nevertheless aimed at the enjoyment of the public. In memory of the circumstance, Giacomo himself let carve a plaque on the facade of the building in which he recalled that the picture gallery was destined ad bonorum artium patriaeque utilitatem (for the use of fine arts and the homeland). In reality, things went differently (at least in part): due to the economic decline that, during the nineteenth century, struck the Zambeccaris like almost all the other noble Bolognese families, as well as the neglect of the heirs, several works of the private collection were sold abroad (and Gualandi had a role in all this). The Italian unification coincided, roughly, with the extinction of the branch of the family. What was remaining of the collection was sold to the Marquis Ferdinando Bevilacqua Ariosti in 1867 and, four years later, passed into the hands of Count Giovanni Revedin. But here a legal case was triggered, which was dragging on for years: referring to the testamentary dispositions of Giacomo, and to the written and oral testimonies, the courts decided that the sale to Revedin was null and that the collection had to be kept for public use. The Zambeccari collection was then aggregated to the Art Gallery (Pinacoteca) of Bologna in 1884. The Zambeccari collection is still part of the heritage of the Pinacoteca; the collection can be visited on the noble floor of Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande. See G.P. Cammarota, The origins of the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna. A collection of sources. Vol. III: The Zambeccari collection, Bologna, Minerva, 2000.

[23] Unfortunately, there is no study on private bankers in Bologna in the nineteenth century. A list of Bolognese private bankers appears in the Elenco classificato per ordine alfabetico delli signori banchieri – fabbricatori – negozianti qualunque e principali artieri […] della città di Bologna e suoi sobborghi… (Alphabetical list of the bankers, manufacturers, merchants and main artisans [...] of the city of Bologna and its suburbs), Bologna, Pei Tipi delle Muse in S. Mammolo, 1845. On Perotti, let me refer to some brief notes in G. Mazzaferro (edited by), The Woman Who Loved Colors. Mary P. Merrifield. Letters from Italy 1845-1846, Milan, Officina Libraria, 2018 and some quotations in Cammarota, The origins of the Pinacoteca ... Vol. II From the refoundation ... quoted.

[24] Biblioteca Comunale dell'Archiginnasio, Bologna, Special Fund Cincinnato Baruzzi, envelope 6.1, letter of 15 April 1839.

[25] See G. Mazzaferro (ed.), La donna che amava i colori ... quoted, pp. 146 ff.

[26] See note 10.

[27] See G. Mazzaferro (ed.), La donna che amava i colori ... quoted, pp. 173 and 179.

[28] G.P. Cammarota, Le origini della Pinacoteca Nazionale… Vol. III La collezione Zambeccari… quoted, p. 317 note 183.

[29] G.P. Cammarota, Le origini della Pinacoteca Nazionale… Vol. III La collezione Zambeccari… quoted, p. 88 note 10.

[30] L. Scarabelli, Alcuni quadri di Michelangelo Gualandi in Bologna (Some paintings of Michelangelo Gualandi in Bologna), Piacenza, 1843. Can be consulted online at http://badigit.comune.bologna.it/books/sol/59040_INV.pdf.

[31] Among the paintings, it is worth mentioning the Portrait of Domenico Marini (a famous Roman ball player), by Karl Bryullov (Карл Павлович Брюллов, 1799-1852), a Russian neo-classical painter who long lived in Italy. The painting is now kept at the Novgorod Fine Arts Museum. On the website of the Russian Presidential Library, a hand-written sheet written by Gualandi on an unknown date is now available: https://www.prlib.ru/en/node/465668?mode=archive.

[32] In this regard, it is worth reporting what Otto Mündler wrote in his diaries, visiting the collection of the «Ragioniere di Casa Buschi. This amateur has some really good pictures, but mostly of the Carraccis and their school, Guercino da Cento etc.» See The Travel Diaries of Otto Mündler 1855-1858, edited and indexed by Carol Togneri Dowd, introduction by Janyie Anderson, The Walpole Society, 1985, cit., p. 117.

[33] See S. Avery-Quash and Christian Meyer (ed.), London and the Emergence of a European Art Market, 1780-1820, Los Angeles, The Getty Research Institute, 2019.

[34] By way of example, consider that in the province of Bologna, in the central decades of the nineteenth century, two large landed estates were born: the first was that of the Roman Alessandro Torlonia (1800-1886), the second that of the Genoese (but long resident in Paris) Raffaele De Ferrari (1803-1876). In both cases the "traditional" Bolognese noble families did not play any role. On Torlonia (which at the time of death was the owner of 5,300 hectares of land in Bologna) see L. Govoni e L. Vittori, I Torlonia in Romagna e nel Bolognese. Formazione e declino di un grande patrimonio fondiario (The Torlonias in Romagna and in the Bologna area. Formation and decline of a great land patrimony in the land ownership in Emilia-Romagna), Bologna, Zanichelli, 1984, vol. IV, pp. 15 ff. As to Raffaele De Ferrari, his first purchase in the Bolognese area (the Duchy of Galliera) can only be explained by his desire to be upgraded from a marquis to a duke; in 1876 he owned 5,700 hectares. G. Mazzaferro, Un finanziere di rango europeo a San Giovanni in Persiceto. Le tenute acquistate da Raffaele De Ferrari (1833-1876) (A financier of European rank in San Giovanni in Persiceto. The estates purchased by Raffaele De Ferrari (1833-1876) in Strada maestra. Notebooks of the G.C. Croce Municipal Library of San Giovanni in Persiceto, 34 (1st semester 1993), pp. 71-93.

[35] On the subject see: A. Emiliani, Leggi, bandi e provvedimenti per la tutela dei beni artistici e culturali negli antichi stati italiani 1571-1860 (Laws, notices and measures for the protection of artistic and cultural heritage in the ancient Italian states 1571-1860), Bologna, Alfa Edizioni, 1978.

[36] [M. Gualandi], Dell’Esposizione di Belle Arti in Bologna nel 1835 e pochi cenni su quella di Milano (The Fine Arts Exhibition in Bologna in 1835 and a few notes on that of Milan), Florence, Typography All’Insegna di Dante, 1835; [M. Gualandi], Dell’Esposizione di Belle Arti in Bologna nel 1836 (The Fine Exposition Arts in Bologna in 1836), Florence, Typography of Gius. Galletti, 1836; [M. Gualandi], Sulle Esposizioni di Belle Arti in Bologna nel 1837. Lettere ad Epifanio Fagnani di Mortara (On Fine Art Exhibitions in Bologna in 1837. Letters to Epifanio Fagnani di Mortara), Florence, Coi tipi della Galileiana, 1838. The series continued for years afterwards with [M. Gualandi], Esposizione di Belle Arti in Bologna nel 1844, (Exhibition of Fine Arts in Bologna in 1844), Bologna, Tipografia Sassi, 1844.

[37] On the opposition (which in Gualandi's case almost became a cohabitation) between the literary tradition of the eckphrasis and the Tuscan documentary research, see, for example, D. Levi, Cavalcaselle, Il pioniere della conservazione dell’arte italiana (Cavalcaselle, The pioneer of the conservation of Italian art), pp. XXVI-XXVII. Moreover, we should refer to P. Barocchi (edited by), Gli scritti d’arte dell’Antologia di G.P.Viesseux 1821.1833 (The writings of art of the Anthology of G.P.Viesseux 1821.1833), Florence, S.P.E.S. Study for Selected Editions, 6 volumes, 1975-1979. The Viesseux Anthology does not host any contribution of Gualandi. The scholar was a corresponding member of the Archivio storico italiano since 1842. The Archive of the Fondazione Carisbo in Bologna preserves a file in the Ambrosini Fund (Ambr. C. XII op. 538) entitled «Submissions to the Italian Historical Archive Society in Florence» in which Gualandi noted precisely the material sent to Florence (in August 1841, June 1842 and May 1843) with an eloquent note added around 1870: «As a counterpart, I received only shameful ingratitude»".

[38] M. Gualandi, Memorie originali italiane ... quoted, First Series, p. 1.

[39] Archivio della Deputazione di Storia Patria, Gualandi cards, envelope 13th fasc. 7, «Diplomi accademici inviati a Michelangelo Gualandi di Bologna» (Academic diplomas awarded to Michelangelo Gualandi from Bologna).

[40] Gualandi himself made it clear that the author of the review was Carlo Pepoli. In fact, he printed on the two counter-plates of the Third Series the list of the printed proofs received from his work. The Bolognese Carlo Pepoli (1796-1881), the first mayor of the city after the unification of Italy, was one of the nine Bolognese activists of the revolutionary movements of 1831 who were not amnestied in 1832 and, therefore, remained in exile until 1859 in London, where Pepoli lived over twenty years, teaching Italian language and literature at the University. It seems to me a classic example of mutual support between two people who, in reality, knew each other well and had the same ideas (also Pepoli was liberal and Freemason).

[41] E.K. Guhl, Künstler-Briefe, Tome I, Berlin, T. Trautwein’sche Büch und Musikalienhandlung, 1853; Tome II, Berlin, Guttenberg, 1856.

[42] Note, by the way, that, inside the obituary of Liverati, published in the Archivio Storico Italiano. Appendix. Volume I, 1844, p. 361, Carlo Milanesi wrote: «The fruit of [Liverati’s] zeal was, among other things, the co-operation of Michelangelo Gualandi, his compatriot and friend, and most honest man, who was among the first to send us notes and extracts of manuscripts and historical documents from his homeland Bologna". See also note 37.

[43] Biblioteca Comunale dell'Archiginnasio Bologna, Giuseppe Campori Special Fund, letter dated 15 December 1855.

[44] See note 30.

[45] Letter of my property, acquired on the antique market.

[46] About this work, probably only of Bartolomeo Cesi, but assigned by the three professors in question to Cesi and Agostino Carracci, there was no news after the brochure was printed. See M. Preti Hamard, Ferdinando Marescalchi (1754-1816). Un collezionista italiano nella Parigi napoleonica, (Ferdinando Marescalchi (1754-1816). An Italian collector in Napoleonic Paris), Bologna, Minerva, 2005, vol. I, p. 102 note 25.

[47] Biblioteca Comunale dell'Archiginnasio Bologna, Cincinnato Baruzzi Special Fund, envelope 6.1, letter dated 29 May 1837.

[48] ​​Biblioteca Comunale dell'Archiginnasio Bologna, Pelagio Palagi Special Fund, Carton X, letter 31 of 2 May 1837.

[49] According to Janye Anderson, Eastlake and Gualandi already knew each other in 1842. In this regard, the author mentioned a letter dated 10 October 1842 in which Gualandi wrote to the Marquis Costabili, saying that on the 4^th of the same month he had visited the collection of the nobleman from Ferrara together to Eastlake, his wife, and Otto Mündler; he attached a price request for some works to the letter. See The Travel Diaries of Otto Mündler 1855-1858, cit. p. 9. This is however a simple mistake, as Anderson misinterpreted the date of the letter (which I saw personally), which is October 10, 1862 (I remember that Eastlake and Elizabeth Rigby were married in 1849, and then it is impossible that in 1842 they travelled together). The mistake was not acknowledged by Susanna Avery-Quash in S. Avery-Quash and J. Sheldon, Art for the Nation. The Eastlakes and the Victorian Art World, London, The National Gallery, 2011. Unfortunately, it was received uncritically in the Italian scientific world, generating confusion especially on the dispersion times of the Ferrara collection. See L. Majoli and O. Orsi, La collezione Costabili: formazione, vendita e dispersione (The Costabili collection: training, sales and dispersion) in E. Mattaliano, La collezione Costabili, Venice, Marsilio, 1998, p. 21.

[50] Biblioteca Comunale dell'Archiginnasio, Bologna, Giuseppe Campori Special Fund, letter dated 25 October 1855.

[51] C.L. Eastlake, Materials for a History of Oil Painting, London, Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1847.

[52] Notizie e pensieri sopra la storia della pittura ad olio di Charles L. Eastlake […] tradotti dall’inglese da Giovanni A. Bezzi, Livorno-London, Pietro Rolandi, 1849.

[53] G. Mazzaferro (edited by), La donna che amava i colori ... quoted, p. 159.

[54] Ibidem, pp. 195-198.

[55] G.M. Green, Catalogue of the Eastlake Library in the National Gallery, London, Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode, 1872. The modern transcription of the catalogue (edited by S. Avery-Quash) can be consulted on the website of the Memofonte Foundation at the address http://www.memofonte.it/home/files/pdf/EASTLAKE_S_LIBRARY.pdf.

[56] Biblioteca Comunale dell'Archiginnasio Bologna, Giuseppe Campori Special Fund, letter dated 15 January 1855.

[57] M. Gualandi (edited by), Nuova Raccolta di lettere... quoted, Vol. III, p. 324.

[58] Ferrara, Museums of Ancient Art, Archivio Medri, loose paper. The Costabili collection was one of the most important private collections of Ferrara primitive art. It reached its apex in the first half of the nineteenth century, and it was gradually dismembered due to the family's financial difficulties until it was totally dispersed in 1884. The choice of the Municipality of Ferrara not to buy it in its entirety when (1856) the marquis Giovanni offered it for sale, including the library, can certainly be described as deleterious (even if understandable, if it is contextualised in the historical and economic moment). On his side, the marquis demonstrated with his offer a sensitivity that I believe has not been recognized by modern scholars. See in this regard A. Colombi Ferretti, Presentation in E. Mattaliano, The Costabili collection ... quoted, p. 9. It must also be said that the aforementioned erroneous displacement of the date of Gualandi's letter from 1862 to 1842 (see note 49) probably led to the belief that the nobleman from Ferrara had already provided for disposals, while it was now clear that, first of all, he had turned to the Municipality in 1856 to keep the collection intact (and in public hands).

[59] The only painting attributed to Marco Zoppo described by Eastlake, at the end of August 1858, is as follows: «No. 21 – called Marco Zoppo – St. Dominick as the institutor of the Rosary – The St standing holds an open book with his left hand (the fingers naturally disposed among the leaves as if marking several texts – the imitation of the foreshortened leaves & of the printing or MS. excellent). He points with his right to a Rosary suspended from a rod crossing the picture behind the St. a similar rosary hangs from the rod on his left side but is there partly concealed by the book – the rosary consists of red & glass beads & through the latter is seen a [[the]] red string which connects them» (S. Avery-Quash, The Travel Notebooks ... cit., p. 417). This is precisely the picture now attributed to Francesco del Cossa with NG597 (the depicted saint became St. Vincent Ferrer) and considered the central panel of the Griffoni Polyptych once in S. Petronio, in Bologna. Later, in August of the following year, Eastlake was in Berlin and saw a Madonna with saints and Child today at the Staatliche Museum (N. inv. 1170). In this regard he wrote: «A large signed altarpiece by Marco Zoppo leaves no doubt whatever that the picture ascribed to that master in the National Gallery is correctly named. The style of the drapery in the Berlin picture, the rocky & sharply finished landscape background & architectural details, & even the festoons of red beads passing behind the central figure (the subject is the enthroned Madonna surrounded by Saints) all strikingly resemble the fine specimen from the Costabile collection & now in the N. Gallery» (S. Avery-Quash, The Travel Notebooks ... cit., p. 485). At this point I am afraid of having to report an error (one of the very few) in the edition of notebooks edited by Susanna Avery-Quash. At the time there was only one Zoppo’s painting in the museum held and it was NG597. In 1857 they bought a painting depicting a Pietà with St. John the Baptist and St. Joseph of Arimatea (NG590), but it was attributed to Cosmè Tura (and the paternity of Marco Zoppo was a subsequent acquisition). The painting came from the Lombardi-Baldi collection in Florence and had previously belonged to Prof. Rosini. When Eastlake, in Berlin, referred to Zoppo's work in the National Gallery, he was therefore talking about the NG597 and not the NG590, as mentioned instead in the modern edition of the Director's notebooks (p. 498 note 4). It is also evident that, based on the description, the picture was the N597: in N590, in fact, there is neither a rocky background nor a string of pearls passing behind the central figure. The Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in The National Gallery: with Biograpichal Notices of the Painters. Foreign Schools, by Ralph N. Wornum, London, 1863 then clarifies (on p. 260) that the painting was bought from the Costabili collection in 1858. Still the consultation of the same catalogue then allows (on p. 125) to understand that another work bought from the same collection and sent by Gualandi in the autumn of 1858 is a St. Francis in glory attributed to Filippino Lippi and, today, to Botticelli (NG598). Eastlake spoke of the painting in his eighteenth notebook (August 31, 1858, p. 423 of the Avery-Quash edition).

[60] This passage allows me to address an issue that only marginally concerns the Eastlake-Gualandi relationship, but which is nevertheless important from a historical-commercial point of view. Recently, some highly esteemed scholars have tried to quantify the flows of works of art directed to England by the Italian states of the old regime by having recourse to the examination of English custom registers at the time of the unloading of the goods. The idea seems to me fascinating. See C. Guerzoni, The Export of Works of Art from Italy to the United Kingdom, 1792-1830 in S. Avery-Quash and C. Huemer (ed.), London and the Emergence of a European Art Market, 1780- 1820, Los Angeles, The Getty Research Institute, 2019. Yet, an observation is required: the figures on imports from the Papal States proved extremely low (no works would have been sent to England in 1821, 1822, 1824, 1825, 1826, 1827, 1829, 1830, 1831, 1834, 1835, 1836 and 1838, to limit our search to the twenty years 1820-1840), while those of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany were exctremely high (on average more than a thousand paintings a year). This situation may perhaps have reflected two different legal systems for the protection of heritage; however, what explains these different figures is not so much the effectiveness of the  Pacca edict in the Papal Sates, but the fact that the paintings from there were normally shipped to London from the harbour of Livorno, where the presence of English logistics was paramount. In the Bolognese case, then, it is an established fact that the harbour used for exports was normally Livorno and not that of Ancona (see, for the export of the hemp, L. Dal Pane, L. Dal Pane, Economia e società a Bologna nell’età del Risorgimento - Economy and society in Bologna in the age of the Risorgimento, 1st and Zanichelli 1969, 2nd ed. Editrice Compositori 1999, p. 341).

[61] Ferrara, Museums of Ancient Art, Archivio Medri, loose paper.

[62] Jaynie Anderson, The Restoration of Renaissance Painting in mid Nineteenth-Century Milan. Giuseppe Molteni in Correspondence with Giovanni Morelli, Florence, Edifir, 2014, p. 43.

[63] All three paintings are today in the National Gallery. Purchased by Eastlake for his private collection, they were sold by his wife to the museum which the English scholar had directed in 1867, shortly after her husband's death (December 1865). They are, to be precise: The Virgin with Child and the saints Antony the Abbot and George (NG776); The Saint Jerome by Cosmè Tura (NG773); and The Saint Jerome in a landscape by Bono da Ferrara (NG771). While the last two were sold, the first was provided for free.

[64] Archive of the Fondazione Carisbo, Fondo Ambrosini C XIII op. 559. See note 71.

[65] See Alphabetical list of the bankers, manufacturers, merchants and main artisans ... quoted, p. 5.

[66] For instance, G. P Cammarota did not establish any link in his Le origini della Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna… Vol. III La collezione Zambeccari, quoted. However, although not advancing hypotheses, he signalled an incorrect previous attribution by Andrea Emiliani (p 289 note 29).

[67] Ibidem, p. 402.

[68] The Travel Diaries of Otto Mündler… quoted, p. 167.

[69] S. Avery Quash, The Travel Notebooks…, quoted, V. I, p. 372. Avery-Quash points out that the picture is the one today at the National Gallery.

[70] See note 5.

[71] The title of the manuscript (which is preserved at the Fondo Ambrosini, C. XIII op. 559) is much longer: «Artistic tour in some cities of the middle and southern Italy in the year 1861 (in March) / Excursion in Naples (via Florence and via ship in Livorno) and its surroundings in September and October 1861 accompanying the famous literary artist sir Charles Lock Eastlake, President etc. of the Academy of Fine Arts in London». In reality the second part of what was promised (that is, the report of the trip to Naples) is absent (there are only a few pieces of support relating to the hotels where Michelangelo was staying and little else), but we know that indeed Eastlake also went to Naples in the same period. That the first trip was performed at the request of the English scholar is shown by at least a couple of passages of the manuscript: «From Siena, where I stayed one day, I went to Florence where I left for Bologna. As to the things seen or re-seen in Florence, I will refer to them in the second artistic excursion that I will have to undertake towards the end of the summer, well grateful in the meantime to that illustrious foreigner who promoted and favoured the first trip with the promise that I would be his companion in the second, as it then happened for my rare good fortune». In sum, the report of the first trip was laid out before September-October 1861, to then be the subject of subsequent additions (artistic tours in some cities ..., cit., Fasc. 1.1 c. 21). And again, as to Pesaro: «Bonamini Paintings Collection. Very worthy of remembrance and without restaurations. I have in mind that the illustrious Mr. Eastlake knows this Collection, of which I therefore do not need to make no particular mention» (fasc. 1.2 c. 5).

[72] The most immediate result of the action of Morelli and Cavalcaselle was the presentation to the Ministry of the Catalogo delle opere d’arte nelle Marche e nell’Umbria (Catalogue of works of art in the Marche and Umbria) (1862). The personal notes of Morelli on the journey (in relation to the Marche only) have been published in J. Anderson, I Taccuini manoscritti di Giovanni Morelli (The Manuscript Notebooks by Giovanni Morelli), Milan, Federico Motta, 2000.

[73] S. Avery-Quash, The Travel Notebooks of Sir ..., cit., V. I, p. 578.

[74] Biblioteca Comunale dell'Archiginnasio Bologna, Giuseppe Campori Special Fund, letter dated 26 December 1861. The painting was sold by Giulia Seghizzi Coccapani by 1872 and, after a series of steps, was priced almost a million and a half dollars at an Old Masters auction of Christie's on April 27th 2017. See https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/francesco-francia-bologna-c-1450-1517-saint-barbara-6068910-details.aspx

[75] S. Avery-Quash, The Travel Notebooks of Sir ..., cit., Vol. II, 85. The work was mentioned by Giuseppe Molteni as being on the way to restoration together with Pisanello and the other two paintings purchased from the Costabili collection. See Jaynie Anderson, The Restoration of Renaissance Painting, cit., P. 43 (see also note 62).

[76] Unfortunately, the numbering shown in the letter does not help in the identification of the paintings, because it does not correspond to that of the description of the Costabili collection of paintings by Camillo Laderchi in four volumes (Ferrara, 1838-1841) nor can it obviously refer to the catalogue by Gaetano Giordani , written in 1870. It can be inferred that an intermediate register of the collection existed, now lost.

[77] S. Avery-Quash, The Travel Notebooks of Sir ... quoted., V. I, p. 608. The quantitative discrepancy leaves one puzzled. Why make a list of eight paintings on the 4^th October, and send one of eighteen on 10^th October? It seems to me that the only possible answer is that the request was made in the name of Eastlake, but that it was actually the expression of a joint interest of buyers (Eastlake and Mündler? And with them also the same Gualandi?).

[78] Eastlake had spotted the work since September 1861. At the time, however, he had marked on his notes that, for the moment, it was not for sale. See The Travel Notebooks of Sir ... quoted, V. I, p. 566.

[79] S. Avery-Quash, The Travel Notebooks of Sir ... quoted, V. II, p. 126.

[80] J. Sheldon, The letters of Elizabeth Rigby, Lady Eastlake, Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2009, p. 235. It is not clear to me what Cavalcaselle's role is in this story. That is, whether this connoisseur had given Gualandi a consultancy on behalf of Eastlake (and in that case we would be in the sphere of the commercial activities of the man mentioned in D. Levi, Cavalcaselle cit ..., pp. 143 ff. And 322 sgg.), or whether Michelangelo had known it by chance, reporting to Eastlake. In that case, the British would simply have trusted what Gualandi told him.

[81] «The illustrious Cav. CARLO LOCKE EASTLAKE, president of the Academy of Fine Arts and director of the National Museum of London, is no longer with us: after he left England for months, as he used to do every year, for an artistic journey in Italy, he was struck down by a violent disease, and conducted in Pisa in search of mild air. However, every remedy merely permitted to prolong his precious days. He died there on the morning of the 24th in the arms of the desolate wife, well known like him as a talented artist and writer. Those who knew and were able to appreciate the qualities of the mind and heart of Sir EASTLAKE can only feel what loss the Arts and his numerous admirers have made. Among them, many will want to write his biography in his praise. But the vivid pain does not allow Michelangelo Gualandi to dictate other words.

Bologna, December 26, 1865».

[82] Biblioteca Comunale dell'Archiginnasio, Bologna, Giuseppe Campori Special Fund, letter dated 16 June 1866.

[83] Biblioteca Comunale dellìArchiginnasio, Bologna, Giuseppe Campori Special Fund, letter dated 2 December 1870.

[84] Archivio della Deputazione di Storia Patria, Carte Gualandi, envelope 131 fasc. 14.

[85] Only one event deserves to be cited, as it calls into question the patriotism of the Bolognese scholar. In October 1862 Maria Pia of Savoy, daughter of King Vittorio Emanuele II, got married and became queen of Portugal. To celebrate the event the municipality of Bologna decided to give the future bride a painting by Francesco Francia, bought from the collection of Michelangelo Gualandi. Shortly before the wedding on the Osservatore Romano and on a series of Catholic-inspired newspapers, an article emerged in which, in essence, it was said that the work was not by Francesco Francia, but by his son (and less famous painter)  Giacomo Francia. The “ultra-liberal” Michelangelo Gualandi would have bought it for a little money in a junkyard and had let it heavily retouch by a cheap artist (Ms Gargalli). «Well, this pure blood patriot has sold the painting to our highly intelligent and illuminated city hall for the small amount of 1200 Roman shields ready in cash, passing it off as a masterpiece by Francesco Francia, when it is nothing but a shapeless and patchy copy of another Francia. I say patched, because the very liberal lawyer Mr. Michelangelo Gualandi made it lengthen and widen by a few inches, then adding another kind of halo around the head of the Madonna; it bought it for a little money in a junkyard, made it touch up heavily». Gualandi wrote a defensive memory that has come down to us, in which he rejected one by one the accusations of the anonymous accuser. See the Archivio della Deputazione di Storia Patria, envelope 131 fasc. 13, «Regalo di nozze di Pia di Savoia» (Wedding present from Pia di Savoia). However, if we read Otto Mündler's journals, we learn that in 1857 the National Gallery Travelling Agent saw the work and wrote: «Went to see Sigr Michaelangelo [sic] Gualandi, who has a “Francia” to show. The Virgin is holding the Infant Christ asleep, placing him on a red cushion. It strikes me as being a Giacomo Francia, an indifferent specimen and by no means in a satisfactory state» (The Travel Diaries of Otto Mündler, quoted. P. 218). It is impossible that Michelangelo did not know that judgment. Along with him, it was probably aware of someone who was able to attend Mündler's visit and remembered it years later.

[86] Biblioteca Comunale dell'Archiginnasio Bologna, special Fund Pelagio Palagi, Carton X, letter 70 of 24 December 1836.

[87] Archivio della Deputazione di Storia Patria, Gualandi Cards, envelope 131 fasc. 14.

[88] Marciana National Library, Cod. It. IV 2035 [= 12276], n. 95.

[89] See note 22.

[90] Archivio della Deputazione di Storia Patria, Carte Gualandi, envelope 131 fasc. 11, «Dispacci ministeriali di varie regie deputazioni di storia patria» (Ministerial dispatches of various royal deputies of national history).