- 7
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, called Il Grechetto
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Description
- Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, called Il Grechetto
- Circe
- signed and dated on the column in the upper right: G. Benedetto / Castiglione 1653
- oil on canvas
Provenance
With Cavalier Guido Sanguinetti, Genoa from 1928 until 1938.
Exhibited
Genoa, Palazzo Reale, Mostra di pittori genovesi del Seicento e del Settecento, June - August 1938, no. 63;
Milan, Robilant + Voena, Milano-Genova andatA/Ritorno, October - December 2012;
London, Robilant + Voena, Milano-Genova andatA/Ritorno, June - July 2013.
Milan, Robilant + Voena, Milano-Genova andatA/Ritorno, October - December 2012;
London, Robilant + Voena, Milano-Genova andatA/Ritorno, June - July 2013.
Literature
G. Delogu, G.B. Castiglione detto il Grechetto, Bologna 1928, pp. 25-26, 49, reproduced plate XXII;
O. Grosso, C. Marcenaro & M. Bonzi, Mostra di pittori genovesi del Seicento e del Settecento, exhibition catalogue, Milan 1938, p. 45, plate 49;
P. Costa Calcagno, "Gio B. Castiglione, il Grechetto", in La Pittura a Genova e in Liguria dal Seicento al primo Novecento, Genoa 1971, p. 189;
A. Percy, in Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione. Master Draughtsman of the Italian Baroque, exhibition catalogue, Philadelphia 1971, p. 40;
Galleria degli Uffizi, Gli Uffizi: catalogo generale, Florence 1979, p. 211;
B. Suida Manning, "The Transformation of Circe. The Significance of the Sorceress as Subject in 17th Century Genoese Painting", in Scritti di Storia dell'arte in onore di Federico Zeri, Milan 1984, vol. II, pp. 691-694;
M. Newcome, s.v., "Castiglione, Giovanni Benedetto", in La Pittura in Italia. Il Seicento, Milan 1989, p. 680;
F. Simonetti, in Il genio di G.B. Castiglione il Grechetto, exhibition catalogue, Genoa 1990, p. 130;
A. Poggi, in C. Manzitti & A. Morandotti (eds.), Milano-Genova andatA/Ritorno, exhibition catalogue, London 2012, pp. 72-75.
O. Grosso, C. Marcenaro & M. Bonzi, Mostra di pittori genovesi del Seicento e del Settecento, exhibition catalogue, Milan 1938, p. 45, plate 49;
P. Costa Calcagno, "Gio B. Castiglione, il Grechetto", in La Pittura a Genova e in Liguria dal Seicento al primo Novecento, Genoa 1971, p. 189;
A. Percy, in Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione. Master Draughtsman of the Italian Baroque, exhibition catalogue, Philadelphia 1971, p. 40;
Galleria degli Uffizi, Gli Uffizi: catalogo generale, Florence 1979, p. 211;
B. Suida Manning, "The Transformation of Circe. The Significance of the Sorceress as Subject in 17th Century Genoese Painting", in Scritti di Storia dell'arte in onore di Federico Zeri, Milan 1984, vol. II, pp. 691-694;
M. Newcome, s.v., "Castiglione, Giovanni Benedetto", in La Pittura in Italia. Il Seicento, Milan 1989, p. 680;
F. Simonetti, in Il genio di G.B. Castiglione il Grechetto, exhibition catalogue, Genoa 1990, p. 130;
A. Poggi, in C. Manzitti & A. Morandotti (eds.), Milano-Genova andatA/Ritorno, exhibition catalogue, London 2012, pp. 72-75.
Catalogue Note
This is one of several versions Castiglione painted of Circe, a subject which proved popular with his clients and allowed the artist to express his talent for realism as well as his interest in magic. Painted in Genoa, where Castiglione lived between 1651 and 1655, it depicts the sorceress using her magical powers to transform Ulysses’ companions into wild beasts. The artist has taken liberties with the episode as told in Homer’s Odyssey (Book 10), where the men are changed into pigs, and here depicts a delightful variety of animals — including a monkey, a dog, various birds, a deer, and a guinea pig — whose human origins are evoked by the gleaming armor in the right foreground.