Italian painter, active mainly in Florence. He was the pupil of Alessandro Rosi. In Florence, he decorated many church interiors and palaces with frescoes and large paintings, but he worked also in several other cities like Livorno and Genoa.
The composition of this painting is clearly related to a work by Luca Giordano depicting the Sleeping Venus with Cupid and a Satyr in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples. Given the great popularity of Giordano’s work in Florence, it is conceivable that Gherardini knew the composition of Venus with Cupid and a Satyr through other versions or drawings, and presented it in his own idiom.
