A bearded man wearing a cap looking down to the right, from "Heads in Oriental Headdress"

A bearded man wearing a cap looking down to the right, from "Heads in Oriental Headdress"

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Il Grechetto)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This etching represents the motif of an exoticisng oriental head that Castiglione returned to many times in the 1640s. Perhaps partly inspired by the foreign traders who frequented the port city of Genoa, these character heads also stem back to the prints of Rembrandt and Jan Lievens. Castiglione produced two series of these exotic types, both large and small, in which he demonstrated his inventiveness and ability to produce a rich chiaroscuro of dramatic lighting with nothing more than an etcher’s needle.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A bearded man wearing a cap looking down to the right, from "Heads in Oriental Headdress"A bearded man wearing a cap looking down to the right, from "Heads in Oriental Headdress"A bearded man wearing a cap looking down to the right, from "Heads in Oriental Headdress"A bearded man wearing a cap looking down to the right, from "Heads in Oriental Headdress"A bearded man wearing a cap looking down to the right, from "Heads in Oriental Headdress"

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.