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

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.