Luca Cambiaso

Here's a drawing
I saw last weekend in
this show at the Block Museum,

which reminded me
of another drawing by the same artist
that I saw in the
Goldman Collection
at the Art Institute last year.

Now, I realize,
I don't like Renaissance Italian drawings
so much as I like Luca Cambiaso


and here's the first one
I ever saw,
about 45 years ago
at the Cincinnati Art Museum.
(it was one of my father's favorites)

***
note: not that it's very important-
but the big toe on the lady's left leg
is on the wrong side of her foot.
The artist might have noticed that himself
when he finished -- but too late!
***





So now,

I'll just go whole hog,
and show as many as
I can find.






Here's the drawing
that made him so famous
in the early 20th Century.

An early cubist!

What could make a Modernist more happy?


But I'm more excited
by his rapturous control of space.
(though I'm also intrigued by
those block-headed figures
that he uses --
an early variant of the cone-heads
that would become famous centuries later
on American television)


Though, more likely,
it just shows that
he has a design
that's trying to become a narrative,
rather than
the other way around.



What a wonderful vision
of poor St. Paul falling off his horse
(and how much energy
is being released in every direction)


These lines
are as perfect
as those of Wang Hsi-chih




A nice image of St. Francis







Every squiggle
is just so right.






Here's a nice puzzle for you:
one of them is
by Cambiaso,
and the other is
someone else's copy.

Which is the original ?








The problem is.....
that he couldn't carry
this level of excitement
into the paintings
for which these were studies.






Unlike the great Chinese masters
of ink on paper,
European artists are basically
just high-end contractors.

They're small businessmen,
and perhaps they can't always afford
to bring exceptional quality
to all of their projects.









while these pieces
can be completed in a few hours. (or less)






















so lively!










and I love how energy
moves across this scene
like a breeze
blowing through leaves
in a forest.






















Poussin and Rembrandt
also made this kind
of wonderful drawing.

(but they could also carry that wonder
into their paintings)











every drop of ink is alive


















here's the answer
to the question asked above.





































the difference between
Cambiaso and the
other Renaissance draftsmen
is not one of degree.

It more like the difference
between poetry and journalism.

His sense of volume and space
is uncanny.