Moses Seated on Clouds

The figure of Moses is boldly sketched with Cambiaso's typically quirky penmanship - vigorously slashed hatched lines outline swirling clouds and nervous squiggles define muscles and knees with a few quick flicks of the pen. Moses' devil-like 'horns' represent the rays of light which reportedly beamed from his head after God had given him the Ten Commandments, whcih he holds in his hand. In the early part of his career, between 1555 and 65, Cambiaso seems to have produced a series of female sibyls and male prophets all wearing elaborate calf-length sandals and seated on clouds, as if to be seen on a ceiling from below.