The Genius of Castiglione
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Il Grechetto)
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Castiglione made some sixty etchings, all characterized by lively handling and highly personal content. He was influenced by Anthony van Dyck, in whose studio he worked in Genoa, and later by the etchings of Rembrandt, just a few years his senior, working in Amsterdam. Castiglione made this print in Genoa and took the plate with him to Rome in 1647 where it was published a year later and dedicated to Matthys van de Merwede, lord of Clootwyck, a Dutch nobleman and patron of the arts who lived in Italy from 1647 to 1650. The inscription in Latin on the book held by the young man reads in translation 'The genius of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione of Genoa [who] invented and made [this]'. The figure in the print is not a self portrait and the word 'genius' should, in this context, be understood in the ancient sense of a 'guiding spirit'. The seated young man in the print is not a self portrait. Holding a trumpet and a book he represents Fame, an identification that is reinforced by the putto holding a trumpet and pointing to a laurel wreath. The rabbit and the basket with birds symbolize fruitfulness whereas the palette, brushes, and music sheet refer to the arts. Their placement on the ground and the crumpled state of the music sheet present a pessimistic note, suggesting the futility of human accomplishment.
Drawings and Prints
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.