Cambiaso, Luca (1527–1585)

Genoese painter. He travelled widely in Italy and absorbed a variety of Renaissance influences. In 1583 he went with Pellegrino Tibaldi (1527–1596) and Federigo Zuccaro to Spain, where they were commissioned by Philip II to execute extensive frescoes in the Escorial. Cambiaso's dramatic use of light and shadow anticipated the style of Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio.

Cambiaso was born in Moneglia, and studied with his father and a painter from Bergamo, G B Castello. At 15 he helped his father to paint subjects from Ovid's Metamorphoses on the front of a house in Genoa.