Currently not on view
Saint George and Saint Theodore,
ca. 1600–1610
Cambiaso’s innovative and audacious draftsmanship influenced every major artist of the next generation in Genoa, inspiring a distinct and increasingly exotic strain of calligraphic penwork that would persist well into the seventeenth century. This drawing, which represents two flamboyantly posed soldier martyrs, is an example of the elaboration of Cambiaso’s unmistakable visual language.
Although its authorship is not certain, this drawing’s quirky elegance suggests that it may be by the little-known Genoese painter Giovanni Battista Montanaro, who collaborated with his brother Agostino on various projects. According to their biographer, early success inflated their youthful ambition and arrogance, which led to rapid decline and oblivion.
Information
ca. 1600–1610
- Old master drawings, Autumn 1962: a selection of drawings to be exhibited at our Boston Gallery, November 1962, and at our Scottsdale Gallery, January 1963, (Boston: R.M. Light and Co., 1962)., no. 32; cover illus.
- "Recent acquisitions," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 22, no. 1 (1963): p. 15-19., p. 15
- Felton Gibbons, Catalogue of Italian Drawings in The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977).
- Laura Giles, Lia Markey, Claire Van Cleave, et. al., Italian Master Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2014)., p. 44, cat. no. 17; p. 45 (illus.); p. 46 (verso illus.); p. 257-258, app. no. 86 (illus.)
