Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (baptized 23 March 1609-5 May 1664) was an Italian Baroque painter of the Genoese school, printmaker, and draftsman and one of the most important technical innovators in the history of printmaking. He is best known for his etchings, and as the inventor of the printmaking technique of monotyping. He was known as Il Grechetto in Italy and in France as Le Benedette. After training in his native Genoa, Castiglione traveled widely throughout the Italian peninsula, working in Genoa, Rome, Naples, Mantua, and Venice. His itinerant career goes along with accounts of his volatile and sometimes violent temperament, which occasionally caused him trouble with the law. While Castiglione was renowned for his many paintings depicting subjects from the Old Testament and ancient history, it was in his works on paper that he made some of his most original contributions, often blurring the boundaries between painting, drawing, and printmaking. Castiglione also brought unprecedented painterliness to printmaking with the monotype. Even when he worked in the more traditional medium of etching, Castiglione created tonal compositions characterized by strong contrasts between light and dark. Rembrandt's influence is evident in Castiglione's prints. He was exposed to Rembrandt's etching by 1630.His most popular and influential prints were a series of exotic heads. Castiglione was famous for his ability to paint animals and they were often a dominant motif in his paintings. Later Italian artists, particularly Giambattista Tiepolo, were inspired by the style, technique, and subjects of Castiglione's prints.