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Michelangelo Merisi, detto Caravaggio - Behold the man
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Antonio Canova - Penitent Magdalene
fullscreen
Peter Paul Rubens - Venus and Mars
fullscreen
Filippo Lippi - Saints Sebastian, John the Baptist and Francis
fullscreen
Paolo Caliari, detto il Veronese - Susanna and the Elders
fullscreen
Alessandro Magnasco, detto Lissandrino - Entertainment in a garden of Albaro
fullscreen
Luca Cambiaso - Self-portrait of the painter in the act of painting the portrait of his father
fullscreen
Domenico Piola - Cain and Abel
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Luca Cambiaso - Madonna of the candle
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Valerio Castello - Madonna of the veil
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Jan Wildens - Landscape with tree-lined avenue
fullscreen
Hans Memling - Sorrowful Christ in the act of blessing
fullscreen
Jan Roos - Still life of fruit, vegetables and flowers
fullscreen
Francesco de Zurbaran - Sant’Orsola
fullscreen
Orazio De Ferrari - Christ and the adulteress
fullscreen
Antonio Travi, detto il Sestri - Adoration of the shepherds
Michelangelo Merisi, detto Caravaggio - Behold the man
Antonio Canova - Penitent Magdalene
Peter Paul Rubens - Venus and Mars
Filippo Lippi - Saints Sebastian, John the Baptist and Francis
Paolo Caliari, detto il Veronese - Susanna and the Elders
Alessandro Magnasco, detto Lissandrino - Entertainment in a garden of Albaro
Luca Cambiaso - Self-portrait of the painter in the act of painting the portrait of his father
Domenico Piola - Cain and Abel
Luca Cambiaso - Madonna of the candle
Valerio Castello - Madonna of the veil
Jan Wildens - Landscape with tree-lined avenue
Hans Memling - Sorrowful Christ in the act of blessing
Jan Roos - Still life of fruit, vegetables and flowers
Francesco de Zurbaran - Sant’Orsola
Orazio De Ferrari - Christ and the adulteress
Antonio Travi, detto il Sestri - Adoration of the shepherds

Other works on display

Description

It is a painting, so to speak, autobiographical and for this reason enriched with the double artistic and emotional-sentimental value: first of all, it constitutes a real filial homage, but it can also be read as an act of gratitude by the student towards the own teacher. Luca Cambiaso, the most important painter of the sixteenth century in Genoa, had, in fact, his father Giovanni, an artist well connected with the Genoese client, as his first teacher. He introduced him to the art of painting by showing him the fundamental notions through the continuous exercise on the masters of the past and also insisting on letting him study the art of foreshortening and modeling, so much so that at fifteen Luca had already achieved a good education and could be inserted in the construction sites that adorned the facades of Genoese buildings. The advanced age of his father Giovanni constitutes the terminus ante quem for the chronological location of the work, presumably executed around 1570, not long before the death of the portrayed in 1579. The pictorial execution is of great rigor and simplicity. Using a range of shades ranging from brown to black, spread for thin and light glazes, the painter gives the whole an almost monochromatic effect, which affects both the room in which the scene is set and the characters. The format, more or less square, enhances the two faces, which are located close together and at the same height. The father stares the viewer directly in the eye; Luca, on the other hand, looks elsewhere, perhaps in the mirror he needed to observe himself in the act of painting himself. Above, affixed to the wall, you can see some objects that evidently allude to a painter's studio: two medallions, probably casts from ancient or antiquing gems and, in the middle of them, a leg that projects its shadow on the wall, probably a mannequin of those that were used for the study of positions, perhaps allusion to the activity of sculpture, practiced by the artist very early under the impulse of his father.

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