D 3015

Unità di misura: mm; Altezza: 362; Larghezza: 260

carta preparata rossa

A pupil and collaborator of Luca Cambiaso, the most important artist active in Genoa in the second half of the 16th century, Tavarone entered the master's workshop at a very young age and followed him to the court of Philip II in Spain in 1583, working on the fresco decoration of the Escorial monastery. Returning to Genoa in 1592, he continued his activity mainly as a fresco painter, decorating the residences of the city's aristocracy with brightly coloured pictorial cycles, with figured panels, faux stucco frames, allegories and grotesques. Among his numerous preparatory drawings, the large sheets on paper dyed red stand out for their originality, in which full-length studies are outlined and shaded in black pencil and subsequently illuminated in white chalk: of this graphic type, far from the pen-and-ink sheets of Cambiaso's master, the Genoese collections preserve the most consistent nucleus. Critics have discerned the influence of Florentine draughtsmanship, both in the use of dyed paper and in the academic exercise on the human figure. These are papers used in the workshop as repertory models to be recovered over time, reproposed several times on painted ceilings, even years later, with minimal readjustments in details and attributes. (PRIARONE, 2021) The drawing depicts a male figure kneeling with his back turned, in the act of prayer.