GIOVANNI BENEDETTO CASTIGLIONE (1609-64)
The Nativity with Angels
c. 1655RCIN 970069
The 1650s saw Castiglione experiment again with the elongated forms of late Mannerism. But now the results appear tortured rather than elegant, as seen best in his monotypes of the period. Here he dredged through the thick ink on the plate with a blunt stick to carve out stark contrasts of light and dark, creating one of the most striking works of his career and indeed of the entire seventeenth century.
Cat. 76