Holy Family c. 1570

Curator: So, here we have Luca Cambiaso's "Holy Family" from around 1570, rendered in ink on paper. What strikes you first about it? Editor: I’m immediately drawn to its unfinished quality. The lines are so fluid and suggestive, not really descriptive of shapes, yet the characters remain instantly readable. It's a pretty cool dynamic to create a very sacred theme in what comes across as a fleeting sketch. What else do you see in it? Curator: Absolutely! It feels so immediate, doesn't it? A private glimpse into the divine, almost as if Cambiaso was scribbling down a thought. What captivates me, though, is the raw emotion conveyed through those simple lines. The way Mary cradles the child, her protective gaze implied though we can’t see her eyes. It makes me wonder what was going through his head when he made it – a devotional exercise, maybe, or simply a study of form and family? It also begs us to consider what he leaves for our imagination to conjure... don't you think? Editor: Definitely. There is a ton of suggestion, as if Cambiaso dared us to use our mind’s eye to flesh them out! It makes the scene much more alive for me, rather than something didactic or preachy. Curator: Precisely! It moves beyond a mere depiction and transforms into a shared creative space. And in that creative collaboration with the past, we might also question: How can such age-old themes and techniques inform our perception of family today? It could be that his loose depiction is truer to life than highly detailed renderings. Editor: I never thought about it like that before! It definitely is a drawing with an engaging feel to it, in inviting us in that shared imaginative space. Curator: I find that these ‘unfinished’ works often give us more to chew on precisely because they pull us in like that!