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TITLE:
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The Baptism of Christ
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CATEGORY:
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Works on Paper (Drawings, Watercolors etc.)
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MATERIALS:
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Pen and brown ink and wash
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MARKINGS:
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Inscribed on the old mount, u.r., 68
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SIZE:
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h: 25.9 x w: 18.3 cm / h: 10.2 x w: 7.2 in
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STYLE:
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Old Masters
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PRICE*:
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Contact Gallery for Price
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DESCRIPTION:
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No less than four paintings of this subject have survived, all ecclesiastic commissions. That which relates most closely to the composition of the present sheet was made for the church of Sta. Chiara in San Martino d’Albaro in Genoa, circa 1570, a date which corresponds well with the style of the drawing (1).The composition relies on the balance between the two main figures, whose actions and proportions are accentuated by geometric reduction of shapes, only the ink wash providing some concession to naturalism. There is only one other design for a Baptism, made early in Cambiaso’s career, now in Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh (2).
The artist made relatively few preparatory drawings. Many of these, such as detailed studies of drapery, heads or limbs and modelletti, are rare or indeed missing from his large production (3).
1) The others are for the churches of San Bartolomeo degli Armeni, San Giacomo in Cornegliano and San Francesco in Rapallo,). P. Boccardo (ed.), Luca Cambiaso, un maestro del Cinquecento europeo, Milan, 2007, pp. 294-5; Bertina Suida Manning and William Suida, Luca Cambiaso, la vita e le opere, Milan, 1958, pl. CCI, fig. 331 and 332.. The suggestion by Laura Magnani in Luca Cambiaso, da Genova a l’Escorial, that the Sta. Chiara painting dates from 1560 does not concord with the stylistic evidence, see p. 144 and pl. 152.
2) Inv. no. RN740.
3) Bober, op. cit.., 2007, p. 65.
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PROVENANCE:
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Charles E. Slatkin Galleries, New York, 1962; bought David Daniels
London, Sotheby’s, 25 April 1978, lot 7, illus.
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EXHIBITION HISTORY:
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New York, Finch College Museum of Art, Luca Cambiaso, exh. cat., (catalogue by Jonathan Bober, et al.) 1967-1968, no. 55, illus.
Minneapolis, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and elsewhere, Loan Exhibition, Selections from the Drawings Collection of David Daniels, 1968, no. 2, illus. (catalogue by Mary Lee Bennett and Agnes Mongan)
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