Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, called Il Grechetto, 
Italian 1609-1664- 
Abraham's Journey into...

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, called Il Grechetto, 
Italian 1609-1664- 

Abraham's Journey into Canaan; 

oil on canvas, inscribed (in a later hand?) '1646 / GIO: BENto CASTIGLIONE / PINGEVA' (lower left) and 'CAP / X II[?]' (lower left), 205 x 400 cm., (unframed). 

Provenance: 
Anon. sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 14 October 2008, lot 25. 

Exhibited: 
London, Matthiesen Gallery, ‘Baroque III, 1620-1700 : an exhibition in aid of the National Art-Collections Fund’, 13 June-15 August 1986, no.14. 

Literature: 
A. Percy, 'Gio. Benedetti Castiglione', Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1971, fig.8, p.30, no.67. 
Matthiesen Gallery, ‘Baroque III, 1620-1700: an exhibition in aid of the National Art-Collections Fund’ exh. cat., 1986, no.14, pp.79-81. 

Note: 
One of the leading paintings of the 17^th century, Castiglione worked in the studio of fellow Genoese artist Giovanni Battista Paggi (1554-1627) in 1617 and completed his training under the landscape and animal painter Sinibaldo Scorza (1589-1631), who presumably shaped his interest and skill in the depiction of animals. Castiglione also studied under Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) and Giovanni Andrea de Ferrari (1598-1669). He was in Rome between 1631 and 1634, and there earnt recognition for a series of paintings of ‘Journeys of Jacob’. These sweeping compositions – much like the present work – exhibit the influence of pioneers of Classical landscape painting Claude Lorrain (1600-1682) and Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), and reveal also a strong debt to the more naturalistic approach of the Northern European artists who formed the 'Bamboccianti' movement, spearheaded by Pieter van Laer (1599-1641), with a focus on pastoral painting elements. 

Castiglione returned to his native Genoa by 1645, where he painted a number of works which had a significant impact on subsequent Genoese artists, including his 'St Bernard adoring Christ on the Cross' in the church of Santa Maria della Cella and 'St James driving the Moors out of Spain' in the Oratorio di San Giacomo della Marina, which were copied by Valerio Castello (1624-1659) and Domenico Piola (1627-1703). Having worked in various Italian cities over the course of his career, Castiglione spent the final decade of his life in Mantua, as court painter to Charles II Gonzaga (1629-1665). 

The Matthiesen Gallery exhibition catalogue of 1986 reads: ‘The exhibited painting shows a journey scene, a subject which he frequently portrayed and which influences compositions by Tiepolo, Boucher, and Fragonard. Known as early as 1635 to be a specialist at painting ‘viaggi di Giacobbe’ in Rome, Castiglione produced variations of this theme into the 1660s (Percy, fig.35). Characteristic of his ‘journeys’ is this caravan which consists of two groups, those in the foreground and those guided by the angel in the left background. Typical also are the vivid accents of red colour and the naturalistic animals that are precisely defined and arranged to fill the foreground which is enhanced here by the figure of a small boy clutching a goat. 

Castiglione certainly benefitted from the teaching of Paggi and Scorza as well as from the activity of northern artists working in Genoa. These influences have always been cited to explain his interest and expertise in painting naturalistic animals, but part of his success for painting this genre may be found in the numerous animal drawings by his teacher, Scorza. Castiglione's animal poses and the application of paint by means of small parallel brushstrokes particularly relate to the descriptive detail of a cow and a sheep in one of Scorza's pen drawings (Louvre 9555, repr. M. Newcome, ‘Le dessin à Gènes du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle’, Paris, 1985, cat.63), which may have been a compilation from northern artists made as a source for his students to follow. 

The painting's date of 1646 places it in the period 1645/47 when Castiglione was in Genoa painting an ‘Adoration of the Shepherds’ (dated 1645, San Luca) and two other altarpieces (Genoa-Sampierdarena, Oratory of S Giacomo della Marina and in S M della Cella). During this period, Castiglione also produced numerous etchings, and the turbanned heads in this painting can be compared with those in a series of etchings (P. Bellini, ‘L'opera incisa di Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione’, Milan, 1982, cat. 23-45) whose margins (P. Bellini, op. cit., cat. 46- 53) contain sketchy journey figures resembling the string of figures in the left background. 

Percy was the first to notice that the painting's inscription with the name and date do not match Castiglione's, which was usually done in capital letters. Although she did not doubt the picture's authorship or the date recorded, she concluded that the inscription is probably by another hand. It is therefore interesting that the second states of four Castiglione etchings of the 1640s (‘Melancholy’, Percy, E 14; ‘Diogenes’, Percy E 15; ‘Genius of Castiglione’, dated 1648, Percy E 16: and ‘Flight into Egypt’, Percy E 17) include inscriptions that are similar to the calligraphic rounded g's and looped l's seen in the writing of the name and date on this painting. These decorative inscriptions, which record a dedication and the name and address in Rome of the publishers, Giangiacomo and Giandomenico de Rossi, suggest the possibility that the painting might have been taken to Rome along with these prints done in Genoa and dutifully inscribed by someone in the circle of Castiglione, such as the de Rossi brothers, for a patron. And it would be interesting if the patron for this journey painting were Nicolò Simonelli, to whom the Diogenes print was dedicated and whose home was the scene of a fight in 1635 involving Castiglione and his journey pictures! 

During a recent cleaning of the painting, an inscription of ‘CAP X’ with the tops of two other letters (perhaps II) was uncovered below and to the right of the ornamentally inscribed name and date. These letters are found on other paintings (Percy no.68, no.1250; no.148) and, as noted by Percy, refer to chapters in ‘Genesis’ pertinent to the scene. It is therefore possible to consider that this painting may concern the journey into the Land of Canaan by Abraham, his wife Sarah, his brother's son, Lot, and the people that were with them and all their belongings, as told in ‘Genesis’ 12:1-6.’ 

Other versions of this subject by Castiglione include those in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge [148], and in the Musei di Strada Nuova in Genoa [PR0092].