The Genius of Castiglione

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Il Grechetto)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In Castiglione’s most famous etching, a reclining figure holds a book inscribed: “The genius of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione of Genoa [who] invented and made [this].” The print was published in Rome in 1648 by Gian Giacomo de’ Rossi, who dedicated it to Matthijs van de Merwede, a Dutch nobleman who spent time in Italy between 1647 and 1650. The figure is not a self-portrait of the artist; the composition refers to artistic fame in a general sense. The many details are rich with meaning. For example, fecundity is represented by the basket of poultry and the rabbit, and creativity by the artist’s palette and the sheet of music.

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art