Getty Museum
A Family in a Desert Landscape
Creator
Giovanni Benedetto CastiglioneItalian Artist · 1609–1664
All works by this person →Unlike many Italian artists, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione was profoundly influenced by foreigners. He first studied with local artists in his native Genoa, absorbing not only Tuscan Mannerism and Caravaggism but also the style of Peter Paul Rubens, who had worked in Genoa. From 1621 Castiglione also worked in Anthony van Dyck's Genoa studio. Early on, he was attracted to Flemish animal painting.
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- late 1640s
- Medium
- Brush and colored oil paint, over traces of black chalk
- Culture
- Italian
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
- Object ID
- 62581303-de1e-41ab-8e3b-72a9aaf8cf89
In making this drawing, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione may have originally intended to illustrate a Biblical scene, such as the flight of Mary and Joseph to Egypt. Instead he produced an entirely new type of pastoral subject: a young mother seated on the ground nursing her children. She is noticeably at home amidst the animals and the surrounding landscape. A classically posed male figure, presumably the father, casually leans on his horse, looking toward his family. The lazy-looking dog to the left of the composition is a stock figure that appears in some of the artist's other drawings. Castiglione conceived of this unusually large drawing as an independent work of art, and employed his characteristic, vigorous brushstrokes to convey a sense of vitality.
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