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Cavalry battle

Maker

(artist)
1527-1585

Title

Cavalry battle

Date of Production

1570 - 1575

Medium

pen and brown ink, brown wash on laid paper, with brown ink framing lines mostly trimmed away, laid down

Dimensions

Height: 24.8 cm
Width: 35.4 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.3854

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

In this dynamic composition the Genoese painter Luca Cambiaso shows two cavalry squadrons clashing in a furious fight. The sense of drama is conveyed with an energetic whirlwind of quickly executed pen marks and flowing brush strokes. The warriors in the foreground show Cambiaso’s innovative and distinctive stylisation of figures rendered with geometric, ‘cubic’ forms. Despite its apparently unfinished state, the drawing was probably produced as a work of art in its own right, responding to a new market interested in such creations.

Provenance

Charles Rogers, London (1711-1784); William Russell, London (1800-1884); J. Leslie Field (?); his sale, Sotheby's, 16 October 1946, lot 108; purchased there by Colnaghi (London) on behalf of Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), for £9; Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Drawings Gallery Display - Renaissance Modern, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 22/04/2015-07/06/2015

Literature

McGrath, Elizabeth, Gregory Martin, Fiona Healey, Bert Schepers, Carl van de Velde and Karolien de Clippel, Mythological Subjects. I. Achilles to The Graces, CRLB XI, 2 vols., London and Turnhout, 2016
p. 143 note 2 under no. 7a
as an autograph drawing

Inscriptions

Watermark: centre: circle with a crescent containing single-line letters? Verso (backing sheet): right centre, circle containing 3-lobed mountain with bird standing on top.

Inscription: Recto: lower left, brown ink: di mano di Loca Cambagio Genovese.

Collector's mark: Recto: twice at lower right, blindstamped: William Russell (L.2648).

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