85. Sigismondo Caula

This sheet belongs to a group of drawings, now dispersed, made using the same technique, the same style and sharing the same provenance, which represent figures often covered with heavy drapery. Here, Caula used powerful contrasts between light and shade, cleverly opposing the large expanses of reddish-brown wash to the white bodycolour. Like the other sheets in the series, it cannot be matched to any painting by the artist, and seems to have been executed for its own sake, as an exercise in skill. Caula gives the impression of wanting to reproduce in drawing the strong light and colour effects of chiaroscuro prints, such as those produced by his fellow Modenese artist, Ugo da Carpi (1480-1523).