Luca Cambiaso Moneglia 1527 - 1585 Madrid

Painted for the church of Santa Brigida, Genoa, in circa 1562 and probably remained hanging there until the destruction of the church in 1890;
Cattaneo Adorno collection, Palazzo Adorno di Strada Nuova, Genoa;
Private collection.

C.G. Ratti, Istruzione di quanto può vedersi di più bello in Genova in Pittura, Scultura ed Architettura, Genoa 1766, p. 191;
R. Soprani, Vite de' Pittori, Scultori, ed Architetti Genovesi, 1674, ed. C.G. Ratti, Genoa 1768, vol. I, p. 85;
C.G. Ratti, Istruzione di quanto può vedersi di più bello in Genova. Descrizione delle pitture, sculture e architetture ecc. ..., Genoa 1780, p. 214;
F. Alizeri, Notizie dei Professori del Disegno in Liguria, Genoa 1846, vol. II, pp. 163 and 437;
B. Suida Manning & W. Suida, Luca Cambiaso, la vita e le opere, Milan 1958, pp. 45 and 79;
P. Torriti, Tesori di Strada Nuova: la Via Aurea dei genovesi, Genoa 1971, pp. 187-88, a detail of the putto holding the book reproduced in colour on p. 191, fig. 208;
P. Torriti, Tesori di Strada Nuova: la Via Aurea dei genovesi, Genoa 1982, p. 138;
L. Magnani, Luca Cambiaso, da Genova all'Escorial, Genoa 1995, pp. 128-29, and 144, footnote 12, reproduced in colour on p. 131, fig. 138.

The colours are not as red in tone as the catalogue illustration suggests. The support consists of seven vertical pine panels, six of 20-21 cm. in width, the last of 29 cm. These have all been shaved down slightly and are now held by six battens, two old and horizontal and four modern and diagonal, all inset into the reverse of the panels. The panels remain flat and show no sign of bowing, but all but two of the joins have opened to some degree, resulting in varying degrees of concomitant flaking and losses along the edges, mostly of a fairly minor nature. There are numerous old cracks and splits, most of which are visible in the catalogue illustration. These are, for example, a 21 cm vertical curving crack descending from the top edge of the sixth panel (visible just to the right of the top right of the red canopy cape); a vertical 7 cm. crack rising from the bottom edge of the fifth panel (below the foot of the reading angel); lateral splits runing alongside the lower end of the join between the fourth and fifth panels with losses running down from the blue robes of the Madonna to the bottom edge; a large 110 cm split (or perhaps a join) in the third panel running from the top edge through the arm of the Christ Child down to the hem of the Madonna's robe; an irregular split of ca 70 cm. running up from the bottom edge alongside the join of the second and third panels; a vertical 23 cm. crack running from the top edge of the second panel, and finally a small 10 cm split in the upper edge and a larger 95 cm. split running alongside the lower join of the first and second panels, rising from the bottom edge up to the bottom of the book held by Saint Paul. The flaking is reasonably stable and has been held until very recently by an application of china paper to all of the cracks and joins, but intervention will be required in these and some of the upper joins along the top edge, especially that between the second and third panel. There is a small recent circular damage inthe pages of the book held by the Madonna. Apart from these structural issues, the condition of the panels appears to be extremely good. The paint surface appears beautifully preserved, with the artists's original impasto and brushstrokes all clearly visible and legible. Inspection under ultra-violet light reveals no major damages or repairs. There has been some fairly light local retouching and strengthening in some areas, such as the wings of the reading angel, the shadows and landscape behind him running up into the Madonna's dress, and the foreground landscape to his right. The shadows behind Saint Paul have been strengthened as have details of his hands and those of the Child. All other interventions appear to be very minor and local in nature. The varnish layer has discoloured. This lot is offered with a plain gilt wood frame, with numerous minor chips and damages. RCJ
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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This important altarpiece by Luca Cambiaso was painted for the Genoese monastery and church of Santa Brigida (Sancta Maria Scala Coeli) and was for a long time considered lost, particularly after the suppression and destruction of the church in 1890. The picture later entered the collection of the Cattaneo Adorno family in Palazzo Adorno; a building erected by Lazzaro and Giacomo Spinola between 1583 and 1588. The altarpiece is datable to Cambiaso’s mature period and may be compared most closely to another ‘sacra conversazione’ in the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, also from the artist’s ‘golden age’.¹  Both paintings have been dated by scholars to circa 1562-63 and a similar chronology is given by Soprani, who dated the present altarpiece to 1562 in his biography of Luca Cambiaso.²  Although the Madonna and Child with Saints Paul and Augustine is substantially larger than the Smart Museum painting, the two compositions are broadly similar: the Madonna and Child are enthroned in the centre and two adult saints stand at either side of them, holding their respective attributes. The formal simplification of Cambiaso’s compositions at this time is echoed in his graphic œuvre, in which the artist typically describes form through the use of simple geometric shapes. Not only does Cambiaso repeat compositional motifs in his paintings but he also adapts specific figures and their poses: here, for example, the Madonna’s head is inclined towards the Christ Child in a pose that recalls that of the Madonna in the Smart Museum painting, albeit in reverse.³  To fill the empty space beneath the Madonna and Child Cambiaso included a lamb – the symbol of Saint John the Baptist – in the Smart Museum picture and here that lamb has been replaced with a putto, whose action of reading a book (presumably the Bible) gently mimicks that of Saint Augustine beside him. The putto’s naturalistic pose was considered particularly worthy of mention by Soprani, who described the painting in great detail when it still hung in the church of Santa Brigida.⁴  The position of the putto’s torso and wings is almost exactly identical to that of the little angel playing with a dog in the foreground of Cambiaso’s Venus and Adonis, datable to around the same time or shortly afterwards (private collection, Genoa).⁵

The excellent condition of the picture surface allows us to appreciate the freedom and impasto with which Cambiaso painted this work.  As noted by Torriti, the influence of 16th-century Venetian and Emilian painters is evident; the painterly surface and colourful palette recall Titian and Veronese, whilst the naturalism and elegance of the standing figures are reminiscent of the works of Correggio and Parmigianino. The broadly-painted tree that acts as a backdrop here to the Madonna and Child reappears in the background of the Smart Museum panel and in Cambiaso’s altarpiece, formerly in the church of Santa Caterina and today in the Duomo di San Lorenzo in Genoa, which was painted for Luca Spinola in 1562.⁶

1  Inv. 1973.50. The painting, oil on panel measuring 139.7 by 103.2 cm., was formerly in the collection of Samuel H. Kress and then the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, before going to its present location in Chicago.  Alizeri (under Literature) referred to the early 1560s, when this and the Smart Museum picture were painted, as being Cambiaso’s ‘best period’: “Ne dò il primo merito a Luca Cambiaso per la tavola di N.D. co’ Santi Paolo ed Agostino, frutto della migliore sua età, d’un disegno e d’una espressione cosí severa da fargli lode presso i dotti della Scuola Romana”.
2  See R. Soprani, ed. C.G. Ratti, under Literature.
3  This motif is taken up again by Cambiaso for his Madonna in the Madonna and Child with Saints Erasmus and Leonard in the church of San Martino, Zoagli (a detail of which is reproduced in colour in Magnani, under Literature, p. 129, fig. 136).
4  “Dipinse in oltre una tavola da Altare alle Monache di S. Brigida per la lor Chiesa; nella qual tavola effigiò Nostra Donna col Divin Fanciullo in grembo in atto di benedire i SS. Paolo, ed Agostino, a’ piedi del quale sta un’Angioletto, che legge un libro, in un atteggiamento assai naturale, e grazioso”; see Soprani, op. cit., p. 85.
5  Reproduced in B. Suida Manning & W. Suida, under Literature, fig. 113.
6  Cambiaso painted frescoes (now destroyed) and an altarpiece for the Spinola chapel in the church of Santa Caterina in Genoa in 1562; for the latter see Suida Manning & Suida, op. cit., p. 46, reproduced figs. 100 and 101 (a detail of the tree and landscape beyond) and, more recently, Magnani, op. cit., p. 132, fig. 139 (in colour).