Member of a prominent family of artists in late eighteenth-century Bologna, Ubaldo Gandolfi studied, as his younger brother Gaetano, at the Accademia Clementina, where he was taught by Ercole Graziani II, Felice Torelli and Ercole Lelli. Possibly he spent some of the time travelling, for Oretti states that he vidde Firenze, Venezia, ed altre famose scuole. In 1760 Ubaldo was elected to the Accademia Clementina and appointed to the post of instructor of drawing. Ubaldo worked primarily as a religious painter, producing altarpieces for country churches and devotional paintings for city patrons. He is documented as a sculptor, and a few works executed in terracotta are known.