Giovanni Benedetto Detto Il Grechetto Castiglione Biography
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609 - 1664), known as Grechetto, was an Italian painter and engraver, among the greatest exponents of the Genoese baroque school.
After a stay in Naples, he returned to Genoa, where he dedicated himself to important orders both for the picture galleries of the Genoese patriciate and for religious institutions. In 1645 he signed the altarpiece with “the Nativity” for the church of San Luca, considered among his highest achievements, and again for his city he painted “the Vision of San Bernardo” for Santa Maria della Cella and “San James driving away the Moors” for the oratory of San Giacomo della Marina. In the same years he began a fertile graphic production, whose subjects often refer to Poussin's archaeological settings animated by fantastic figures of satyrs and nymphs.
His workshop, always in communion with his brother and son Francesco (1642 - 1710), specialized in still lifes and scenes with biblical and mythological subjects, always crowded with animals. His thin and incisive brushstrokes have the restless characteristics of a painter looking for new spatial and formal solutions. It is difficult today to precisely define which works belong to him and which to his brother Salvatore and his son Francesco: it is necessary to think of the production of this extraordinary painter as a workshop production where each of the three enriched the others with new stimuli and stylistic solutions.
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione was also an esteemed engraver, specialized in the etching technique and inventor of the monotype technique: his prints probably also influenced Rembrandt's work.
From 1651 he was in Mantua, where he became court painter to the Gonzagas. He also often stayed in Naples, Parma and Venice
He died in Mantua and was buried in the cathedral before 1665, the date shown on the tombstone. His son Francesco succeeded him as court painter to Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga.
