Music

This magnificent canvas can be attributed to the painter Luca Cambiaso (Moneglia [Genoa] 1527 – El Escorial 1585); trained with his father Giovanni, his first teacher, he later became his collaborator (numerous Genoese frescoes were executed together). He was inspired by Perin del Vaga (1501-1547), Raphael (1483-1520) and Michelangelo (1475-1564), and Correggio (1489-1534); important figures for his artistic growth were also Gaetano Alessi, a "famous Perugian Architect" and Gio. Battista Castello from Bergamo (known as Bergamasco), a "famous Competitor." In 1583 he was called by Philip II to fresco the monastery of the Escorial in Madrid like many of his colleagues (Titian, Velazquez, Luca Giordano, and his friend Gio. Battista Castello) and died there. A prominent painter of Genoese Mannerism, in drawing he was in some ways a precursor of Cubism, coining his own style, creating geometric forms to give movement to human figures. A girl is standing on a pedestal, holding a lute, a musical instrument, in her hands, which she is playing; the subject of this small canvas is the female figure of "Music," an allegorical representation of the Liberal Arts. During the Middle Ages, the artes liberales of the free man were the literary teachings of the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic) and the scientific quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy). The back of the canvas provides interesting data on the work's provenance. On the frame there is a label "Inheritance Duchess Melzi Balbò 1923-1924 - 229" which refers to an inventory drawn up after the death of the noblewoman for the hereditary division. There are also other writings; one in the upper center in ink, prior to the Melzi Balbò collection, almost certainly attributable to the owner of the canvas "S Varni", one on the left vertical side written in pencil indicating the date of purchase by the last owner after the dispersion of the Melzi Barbò collection. In 1887 Giulio Sambon's Sales Company in Italy put the collection of the Genoese sculptor up for sale on November 14 in the Villino di Santo Varni. Reading the lots for sale in the catalog leads us to number 901, which put seven Genoese school sketches, including a Cambiaso, up for auction. In that year, it was enough to pay a "5 per 100 more than the adjudication price" and "no claims of any kind are admitted, the amateurs having had the opportunity to carefully examine the objects for sale" and "delivery is made the day after the sale, from 9 am to 12 noon." Amateurs of the genre are invited to take a dip into the past! Dimensions: canvas 53 x 30.5 cm