Castiglione (Giovanni Benedetto) [Il Grechetto] manner of

Portrait of a Man Wearing a Turban, drawing in red conte crayon on laid paper, verso reinforced with fragment from contemporary manuscript in Latin script, rubbed, ink faded, framed, and glazed, 210x173mm, mid- 17th century.

*** Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609-1664) was one of Italy’s leading artists of the 17th century and travelled throughout the Italian peninsula. He may have acquired his sobriquet “Il Grechetto” (literally, the “little Greek”) when was active in Rome’s artistic circles,, although scholars disagree over the meaning of the nickname. He surely had access to contemporary Dutch prints, particularly Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669). Indeed, Castiglione is the first artist in Italy known to have borrowed directly from the Dutch master, having most likely learned about him through his contacts with the Flemish artist-dealers Lucas and Cornelis de Wael. During the 1640s Castiglione produced two series of etchings of exotic heads, both large and small. He explored a wide range of cultural and physiognomic types – crooked and aquiline noses, turbans and elaborate jewellery, figures reading a scroll or blowing a horn.

Provenance. Private collection.