Castiglione : Lost genuis

Stunning exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace of drawings by Castiglione in the 17th century.

Castiglione worked in many cities in his short life and was an wonderful draftsman and print maker. He specialized in animals and hence there were a number of Noah pictures and Circe with the companions of Odysseus who she turned into animals. There was also a good scene of shepherds with sheep and wonderful cow’s bottom! He seems to be the Cuyp of sheep!

There were also some wonderful large finished drawings of Old Testament scenes, which he presumably used to try to get commissions, as well as some Zuberan like Franciscan saints.

He also invented a print technique called monotype which involved covering a plate with ink and then drawing in the ink or dabbing more on to create the image to print. Each plate could only be used once but they create wonderful bold images.

You got the impression of a business like innovative artist but with a short temper. He seems to have had to move on from every city he settled in and there was a wonderful account of a court case in which a lawyer listed his previous misdeeds including throwing his sister off a roof! I bet a meeting of Castiglione and Caravaggio would have been explosive!

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