BALDRIGHI, Giuseppe

(b. 1723 Stradella, d. 1803 Parma)

Italian painter and pastelist. He completed his first artistic studies in Florence, under the guidance of Vincenzo Meucci (1694-1766), and then went to Parma. From Parma, Guillaume du Tillot, minister of the Bourbon Duke Philip of Parma (1720-1765), sent him for training to Paris from 1752-1756. In Paris Baldrighi was able to work alongside or at least seen the works of painters such as François Boucher, Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Joseph Duplessis, and Alexandre-François Desportes, and in 1754 he was received into the prestigious Académie.

Baldrighi became known for his watercolours and portraits. His portraits include that of duchess Louise Elizabeth, now Museo Glauco Lombardi in Parma and a Portrait of Jacopo Sanvitale in Pastoral Dress in the Rocca of Fontanellato, and a portrait of Roman Charity for the Museum of Angers.

In 1756 he became professor of the Academy of Fine Arts, and painter to the court of Parma. He actively painted for the Ducal family portraits and a Triumph of the Faith for the chapel of Colorno Palace in 1777.

Portrait of Antonio Ghedini and his Family

Antonio Ghedini from Parma was an official cloth merchant to the Bourbon court. As befits the family of a leading cloth merchant, the Ghedini family are suitably modishly attired: his wife wears a brocaded silk open robe with foliate stripes, salmon-pink furbelows and matching stomacher.

Formerly the portrait had been ascribed to the French court painter Louis Michel van Loo. The confusion is perhaps understandable, for Baldrighi’s style was formed in Paris, where the Duke’s minister Guillaume du Tillot had sent him for training.

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Portrait of a Lady in an Elaborately Embroidered Blue Dress

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The Family of Philip, Duke of Parma

Philip of Spain (1720-1765) was Duke of Parma from 1748 to 1765. He founded the House of Bourbon-Parma, a cadet line of the Spanish branch of the dynasty. He was a son-in-law of Louis XV.

The present group portrait shows the Duke and his wife Louise Elisabeth of France with their daughter Isabella of Parma (later wife of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor), and their younger children Ferdinand, the later Ferdinand I of Parma and Maria Luisa (later Queen of Spain).

The girl is keeping her brother’s miniature sword away from him. Portrayed in profile on the right is the children’s gouvernante, Marie Catherine de Bassecourt.

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