Mauro Gandolfi

Mauro Gandolfi (18 September 1764 – 4 January 1834) was an Italian painter, water colorist and engraver of the Bolognese School.

They are considered to be the last representatives of the grand manner of the Bolognese school of painting, which had established itself almost two centuries earlier with the group of painters trained by the Carracci.

The Bolognese school of painting focused on realistic depictions of human anatomy and drawing from live models.

In 1792 he married Laura Maria Zanetti, with whom he had two children Clementina, a painter, and Raphael, who died at age 19 in the Napoleonic War in Spain.

Six years after his return to Italy, he wrote an account of his American travels in the form of a series of letters addressed to a (possibly imaginary) friend.