1609 -1664 · Genoese Baroque, biblical pastoral and invention of the monotype

Herds, patriarchs, luminous material and gestures of almost improvised freedom make Castiglione one of the most inventive artists of Italian Baroque.

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione was born in Genoa in 1609. Trained in a city open to Flemish painters, he assimilated the vigor of Rubens, the elegance of Van Dyck and the local tradition of Sinibaldo Scorza. Very early on, he distinguished himself by the pastoral scenes where animals, fabrics, tableware and biblical figures share the same abundance. In Rome from the 1630s, he frequented an international environment and discovered the landscapes of Claude Lorrain, the classicism of Poussin and, soon, the etchings of Rembrandt. His favorite subjects - Noah bringing animals into the Ark, Abraham on a journey, fleeing to Egypt - transformed the sacred story into a vast rural theater. The touch is mobile, the warm light and shapes emerge from a whirlwind of material. Castiglione is also an exceptional designer. With the brush loaded with oil on paper, he produces autonomous sheets of rare freedom. He is generally considered the inventor of the monotype, a process which prints an image painted on a plate and allows only one main proof. This technique suits his taste for the unique, the accident and the material. His approximately sixty etchings spread his language throughout Europe. After several stays between Genoa, Rome and Naples, he worked from the beginning of the 1650s for the court of Gonzaga in Mantua. Portrait of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Saint Francis in ecstasy and religious scenes show the extent of an artist capable of uniting observation, spirituality and baroque movement. He died in Mantua in 1664. His influence continued among animal painters, Italian engravers and, later, Tiepolo. Castiglione remains modern in its way of blurring the boundaries between painting, drawing and prints. The "Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione" selection notably compares Crucifixion and Christ chasing the merchants from the temple. His reading favors the story.

In Castiglione, the sacred passes through dust, beasts and matter: technical invention always remains at the service of a living world.