Democritus Gandolfi, born in Bologna in 1797, boasted an illustrious family tradition in art. The grandfather Gaetano (1734-1802) and the brother of the latter, Ubaldo (1728-1781), were two well-known painters of eighteenth-century Bologna both for the fresco decorations of noble palaces and churches and for the construction of altarpieces and paintings of historical-mythological subject. Even his father Mauro (1764- 1834), alongside a great engraving expertise, distinguished himself in pictorial art, so much so that he was commissioned to paint the vault of a hall of the Palazzo Comunale in Bologna. The young Democritus probably on the advice of his father, who collaborated with the Milanese Vallardi brothers, decided to enroll in courses at the Royal Academy of Brera, where he soon had the opportunity to lead the field in plastic,Ceres – Agriculture and Volcano – Industry, while the others were entrusted to the most famous Benedetto Cacciatori, Pompeo Marchesi and Gaetano Monti.