D 2035

Unità di misura: mm; Altezza: 245; Larghezza: 290

pennello

The scene depicts the episode from Genesis (32:4) in which Jacob joins his brother Esau after leaving his father-in-law Laban. It is a beautiful oil on paper drawing, a technique that was only rarely practised in Genoa and possibly derived from the examples of Rubens and Van Dyck that the artist was able to see in the city, which allowed Grechetto to render effects of greater or lesser transparency in the graphic medium depending on the amount of binder used from time to time. Due to the number of sheets produced in this manner and their quality, it is generally accepted that these are not preparatory sketches, but finished works. (BOCCARDO, 1999) The return of Jacob

D 2906

Unità di misura: mm; Altezza: 282; Larghezza: 386

matita nera

La pittura del Seicento a Venezia - Venezia - 1959<br>Maestri del disegno - Genova - 1990<br>Bernardo Strozzi - Genova - 1995

The drawing is related to the frescoes Strozzi painted on the vault of the room with the 'Triumph of David' in the palace then owned by the brothers Gio. Stefano and Gio. Batta Doria, located in Genoa between piazza San Matteo and vico Falamonica. The two Dorias were first cousins of Gio. Carlo, the painter's protector at the time. (BOCCARDO, 1999) The drawing is a rough sketch of two soldiers, including a study of their hands holding swords.

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.

D6777

Unità di misura: mm; Altezza: 375; Larghezza: 290

inchiostro a penna su carta bianca

Rectangular drawing on white paper with a design for the stern of a vessel with the coat of arms of the Republic of Genoa.

D 1853

Unità di misura: mm; Altezza: 236; Larghezza: 353

penna e inchiostro

Luca Cambiaso - Genova - 1956

In a totally unusual manner, Cambiaso chooses in this drawing - probably as an experiment, due to the absence of certain relationships with paintings and frescoes - to show the saint from behind, thus amplifying the dramatic effect of the scene. The still partial 'cubing' of the volumes, moreover, typical of Combiaso's mature production, has allowed the work to be placed around 1570. (BOCCARDO, 1999) In the centre, Saint Lawrence being tortured by soldiers.

D 1844

Unità di misura: mm; Altezza: 283; Larghezza: 250

Penna e inchiostro metallogallico

Odessa, Mosca, Leningrado - 1985

Cut down in the past, this sheet probably constitutes the preparatory study for a 'Nativity' or a 'Holy Conversation', also in view of the ecstatic attitude of the figure of the Baptist. Due to the careful anatonomic investigation and the svelte style and monumental register of the figure, the work can be referred to the first phase of Cambiaso's production. (BOCCARDO, 1999) The drawing depicts Saint John the Baptist with a lamb at his side.

D1716

Unità di misura: mm; Altezza: 210; Larghezza: 275

penna e inchiostro

Anonymous in the Durazzo inventory, the drawing is now ascribed to Guercino, starting with the then still dubious attribution by Mario Bonzi. The genre subject, 'Soldiers counting money', does not currently find any correspondence within the artist's pictorial production, while two different copies, also in drawing, are known to exist, conserved in the Albertina in Vienna (inv. 2370) and in the Pinacoteca di Brera (inv. 340/ID), both attributed to the so-called 'Falsario del Guercino', an 18th century imitator of the master. (BOCCARDO, 1992) The drawing depicts two soldiers sitting and counting money.

D1118

Unità di misura: mm; Altezza: 240; Larghezza: 172

Matita rossa

The drawing is preparatory for one of the figures of prophets frescoed by Guercino in 1626 on the dome of Piacenza Cathedral. The sheet, drawn on both sides, features portraits of two prophets. On the front, the prophet Zechariah is depicted with his arms raised and a bearded face, while the back shows the prophet Jeremiah in a pensive pose.

D1703

Unità di misura: mm; Altezza: 375; Larghezza: 565

cartoncino grasso

The collection of drawings and prints of the Emilian school in the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe di Palazzo Rosso is one of the most important on an international level: it consists of around 300 sheets, donated in 1848 to the city's collections by the Genoese nobleman Marcello Durazzo (1790-1848) - a refined and expert connoisseur of ancient graphics - who, while staying in Bologna, had acquired, through the last heirs of Guercino and his pupils and grandsons Benedetto and Cesare Gennari, autograph sheets by the master or belonging to his workshop. Among others, the large nude study presented here, formerly the property of Cesare Gennari (1637-1688), stands out for its 'modernity' and timeless beauty: in greased charcoal on grey paper, it is an example of the artist's graphic style capable of seductive softness and skilful shading, with atmospheric and 'painterly' results even in monochrome, perhaps reminiscent of the lesson of the tonal painting of the Venetians, from Palma to Titian, so important for the artist from his youth. Moreover, we know from sources that it was precisely at this time, between 1616 and 1618, that the artist would have animated an 'Academy of the Nude' in Cento, his home town, for the practice of drawing. It is probably a live study, due to the immediacy with which the little wall, beehive, grass and fence on which the bird rests lightly are rendered in the background. The drawing depicts a naked male figure lying down.

D2797

Unità di misura: mm; Altezza: 290; Larghezza: 185

penna e inchiostro

Mostra di Guido Reni - Bologna - 1954<br>Guido Reni - Bologna - 1988<br>Guido Reni und Europa - Frankfurt - 1988<br>Maestri del disegno - Genova - 1990<br>Guido Reni The divine - Frankfurt - 2022/2023

The drawing is the last of three projects kept at the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe di Palazzo Rosso, made by Reni at the end of 1613 for the altarpiece of the church of Santa Maria della Pietà. The latter, only completed in 1616 with some variations to the present drawing, was commissioned to him on the occasion of a complex programme of reorganisation of Bologna's welfare structures. Study for the Beggars' Pieta.