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Lazzaro Tavarone

Crew Abandoning Ship (recto) Sketches of Corinthian Columns (verso)

c. 1600
Pen and brown ink with brush and brown wash, over traces of black chalk, on cream laid paper
37.4 × 27 cm (14.7 × 10.6 in)

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In the collection of Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago · as of July 2026

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FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

This sheet presents a series of studies of ships in different action scenes. In the upper left, Tavarone rendered a ship in full sail with the whole crew depicted. To the right, fainter strokes render the outlines of other vessels mid-sail. In the sheet’s dramatic lower register, a vessel lilts far on its right side, while sailors bend under the weight of the items they carry off board the sinking ship. For the small, mercantile city-state of Genoa, shipwrecks were events of commercial and political consequence. They served as a reminder of the risky and uncertain fortunes of a society built on maritime trade.

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