Currently not on view
Study for the Return of Ulysses,
ca. 1565
Luca Cambiaso, 1527–1585; born Genoa, Italy; died Madrid, Spain
x1946-155
This drawing, representing an episode from Homer’s Odyssey, is the final preparatory study for the central fresco decoration of the ceiling of the banqueting hall in the Grimaldi family palace on the Strada Nuova in Genoa. In the mid-1560s, Cambiaso created a complex decorative ensemble for the ceiling’s compartments, with frescoes representing scenes from the Odyssey, individual figures of the gods, the Hapsburg family, and the Grimaldi family. In this preparatory study the figures, whose facial features are conspicuously absent, are rendered with extremely abbreviated details and according to a strict cubic module.
Information
Title
Study for the Return of Ulysses
Dates
ca. 1565
Maker
Medium
Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash on brown laid paper, squared in red chalk
Dimensions
19.7 × 34.4 cm (7 3/4 × 13 9/16 in.)
frame: 40.3 × 53 × 2.9 cm (15 7/8 × 20 7/8 × 1 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Laura P. Hall Memorial Collection
Object Number
x1946-155
Marks/Labels/Seals
Stamp of Richard Cosway, lower right recto (Lugt 629) See reference Bib. 4661);
Reference Numbers
Gibbons 79
Culture
Type
Materials
Richard Cosway, stamp (L. 628) recto, lower right, in black; Charles Fairfax Murray; sale, Anderson Galleries, November 7–8, 1924, lot 190 (as “Poussin”); purchased by Clifton R. Hall.
- Frits Lugt, Les marques de collections de dessins & d'estampes: marques estampillées et écrites de collections particulières et publiques: marques de marchands, de monteurs et d'imprimeurs: cachets de vente d'artistes décédés: marques de graveurs apposées après le tirage des planches : timbres d'édition, etc., (Amsterdam: Vereenigde drukkerijen; La Haye: Nijhoff, 1921)., Lugt no. 3561
- Bertina Suida Manning and William Suida, Luca Cambiaso, la vita e le opere, (Milano: Ceschina, 1957)., pp. 92, 192
- Felton Gibbons, Catalogue of Italian Drawings in The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977)., Vol. 1: p. 51, no. 139 (illustrated in Vol. 2 under the same catalog number)
- Richard J. Campbell and Victor Carlson, Visions of antiquity: neoclassical figure drawings, (Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Minneapolis, MN; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1993)., p. 180, 182, 183; cat. no. 35
- Lauro Magnani, Luca Cambiaso da Genova all’Escorial, (Genova: Sagep, 1995)., p. 154, 162n; p. 172, 182n
- Jonathan Bober, Luca Cambiaso 1527-1585, (Milano: Silvana, 2006)., pp. 133-135, fig. 2; p. 147, no. 7 (verso)
- 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. 108, cat. no. 44; p. 109 (illus.); p. 233, app. no. 25 (illus.)
- Lawrence Rinder, et. al., Architecture of life, (Berkeley, CA: University of California, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, 2016).
