The Baroque Genius of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
January 29 – July 8, 2012 West Building, Ground Floor, East Outer Tier Galleries
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Noah Leading the Animals into the Ark, c. 1645, brush and oil paint on brown laid paper, Partial Gift of Gilbert Butler, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1991.221.1
This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.
Overview: Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609—1664) was perhaps the most complex and far-reaching interpreter of the baroque, the naturalistic style that dominated 17th-century European art. This exhibition presents the National Gallery's rich holdings of the artist's prints and drawings while suggesting, for the first time, the complex sources of his style, including Rembrandt and Claude Lorrain, as well as its importance for later artists, from Tiepolo and Piranesi to Watteau and Boucher. Organized according to themes and concerns in his work—biblical journeys, the memory of the antique, the Flight into Egypt, religious nocturnes, fantastic physiognomy, and graphic experiment—the exhibition presents Castiglione's works and comparative examples side by side, underscoring the serial aspect of his creativity. The installation includes approximately 80 works, most from the Gallery's collection but including a number of important drawings from private collections.
Organization: The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the curator was Jonathan Bober, curator and head of the department of old master prints, National Gallery of Art.
