Moscow, Private Collection;
With Hazlitt, London, by 1977;
With Galerie Kurt Meisner, Zurich, 1977. no. 1276a ;
With P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London, 1977;
British Rail Collection Pension Fund, 1978;
On loan to The Art Institute, Detroit, 1982-1990;
With Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, Ltd., London, circa 1990;

Bologna, Palazzi del Podestà e di re Enzo, L'Arte del Settecento Emiliano. La Pittura: L'Accademia Clementina, September 8 - November 25, 1979, cat. no. 238;
Detroit, The Art Institute, anonymous loan, 1982-1990;
London, Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, Ltd., Italian and the Italianate, 1990, cat. no. 26; 
Ottowa, National Gallery of Canada; Little Rock, The Arkansas Arts Center, Bella Pittura: the Art of the Gandolfi, June 18  - November 28, 1993, p. 66, no. 43.

C. Volpe, I Gandolfi, in L'Arte del Settecento Emiliano. La Pittura: L'Accademia Clementina, exhibition catalogue, Bologna 1979, pp. 118-119, cat. no. 238, reproduced, no. 143;
R. Roli, "Un Nucleo di disegni dei Gandolfi," in Prospetiva, 33-36, p. 297;
D. Biagi Maino, "La pittura Emilia Romagna nella secondo metà del Settecento; S. Barozzi; J.A. Calvi; U. Gandolfi; G. Gandolfi; M. Gandolfi; G.B. Frulli, D. Pedrini; F. Pedrini; G. Santi," in Pittura in Italia, Il Settecento, I and II, Milan 1990, p. 728;
P. Bagni, I Gandolfi, Affreschi, Dipinti, Bozzetti Disegni, Padua 1992, pp. 362-365, no. 341, reproduced p. 363 (as a pendant to The Triumph of Venus);
M. Cazort, Bella Pittura: the Art of the Gandolfi, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Canada 1993, p. 66, no. 43 (as painted circa 1770-75);
D. B. Maino, Gaetano Gandolfi, Turin 1995, p. 376, no. 122, reproduced no. 136.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is in remarkable condition. The paint layer has been cleaned. The canvas is lined yet the texture remains throughout the paint layer. There has been no abrasion and most likely only one or two cleanings during the picture's history. There appear to be no restorations or paint losses and in its beautiful and fresh condition, the picture should be hung as is.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The present painting and its pendant, The Triumph of Venus (see the following lot 113) are bozzetti for two finished oil paintings of the same subject which are now lost, but which were last recorded in Kromer, Lithuania.¹  As such, they are both the most highly realized and important documents of Gaetano Gandolfi's rare depiction of profane and sensual subjects, as well as masterpieces in their own right.

The great energy and vitality with which these paintings are rendered is typical of the artist, as is the use of a palette dominated by low-key muted colors, with highlights of primary colors - red, green, and blue  - and the use of sharp contrasts in light and dark to create a sense of depth and drama in the composition.  Also, in each, Gandolfi uses diagonals and twisting, serpentine forms to heighten the sense of spacial complexity and movement.

Two studies on paper for these pendants still survive: a black chalk preparatory drawing for the central female figure with red drapery and the figure on the far right of  this composition is in the Foundation Ratjen, Vaduz, Lichtenstein (see fig. 1), and a preparatory compositional study in red chalk for The Triumph of Venus was sold London, Sotheby's, July 5, 2006, lot 72, for £96,000 (see fig. 1, under lot 113).  The existence of the compositional study for Diana and Callisto (now lost) was documented by Gaetano's son, Mauro, in a letter of December 21, 1819, now in the Biblioteca Comunale, Bologna.  He wrote to his friend and colleague, the Bolognese Luigi Sedazzi, then in Milan, asking him to make every effort to trace two drawings:  ' ...fare ogni diligente ricerca, se esistono tuttora  e presso di chi si trovino, due disegni di mio Padre all'apis rosso e gesso, rappresentanti l'uno il bagno di Diana, l'altro la nascita di Venere e Amore posti in una conchiglia sostenuta da vari Tritoni, con sul davanti degli amoretti che scherzano coi delfini. Servirono cotesti disegni a due quadri che dipinse per un Moscovita'.  [To make every diligent inquiry, if  they still exist and with whom they might be found, two drawings by my father in red and white chalk , one depicting  the bath of Diana, the other the birth of Venus and love situated on a shell held up by various tritons, with little cupids frolicking with dolphins.  They had served as models for two paintings that he painted for a Moscovite.]  

Mauro was presumably looking for the drawings to copy the collector's stamps, however, the substance of the letter gives a hint of the nature of the original commission for Diana and Callisto and The Birth of Venus: that they were "painted for a Muscovite."² 

These bozzetti were first published by Carlo Volpe in his important 1979 exhibition, L'Arte del Settecento Emiliano. La Pittura: L'Accademia Clementina.  He considers them to have been painted in the late 1780's.  On the other hand, Donatella Biagi Maino, in her monograph on the artist, considers these pendants, which she describes as "superb modellos" and "among the finest examples of Gaetano's oeuvre,"³ to have been painted in the late 1770's.   

1  D. Biagi Maino, Gaetano Gandolfi, Turin 1995, p. 376, cat. no. 121). 
2 See sale catalogue, London, Sotheby's, July 5, 2006, p. 92, lot 72.

3  D. Biagi Maino, op. cit., p. 375 cat. no. 120.