Art Institute of Chicago

Circe with Companions of Ulysses Changed into Animals

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione

Date

1650–51

Medium

Etching on ivory laid paper

Culture

Italy

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione was a painter, printmaker, and draftsman who studied under Anthony van Dyck and Giovanni Andrea de Ferrari. He was known as a specialist in the depiction of animals, and the various creatures on the right of this etching show his dexterity. Circe, the daughter of the sun in Greek mythology, was a sorceress known for her ability to transform men into animals. In Homer’s Odyssey , Circe invites Ulysses and his men to a feast. During the meal, she drugs the men and turns them into pigs. Some art historians argue that because the animals in this etching are not pigs, the subject is actually the pensive figure of Melancholy, made famous by a 1514 Albrecht Dürer engraving.

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