Live Auction 21481Old Master and 19th Century Prints
GIOVANNI BENEDETTO CASTIGLIONE (1609-1665)
Lot 92 PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT FAMILY COLLECTION

GIOVANNI BENEDETTO CASTIGLIONE (1609-1665)

Circe changing Ulysses's Men into Beasts

Closed24 January 2023

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USD 3,780

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GIOVANNI BENEDETTO CASTIGLIONE (1609-1665)
Circe changing Ulysses's Men into Beasts
etching, circa 1651, on laid paper, without watermark, a fine impression of the second, final state, printing richly, with good clarity and contrasts, with margins, minor pale foxing, a diagonal fold at upper centre, otherwise in very good condition
Plate 216 x 309 mm.
Sheet 233 x 325 mm.

Charles Lenormant du Coudray (1712-1789), Orléans (Lugt 1704), dated 1737.
Unidentified, inscribed L [?] Aug. 4/35 (not in Lugt).
With C. G. Boerner, Düsseldorf.
A Family Collection, USA; acquired from the above in 1977.

Specialist note

Traditionally the subject of this etching had been interpreted as an allegory of Melancholy, including by Adam Bartsch, but more recently scholars seem to agree on the identification of the figure as the sorceress Circe. Although there is no drawing or painting in the artist's oeuvre directly related to this print, Castiglione treated the subject repeatedly in different mediums. There is a rapid sketch depicting Circe at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (inv. no. 1984-56-39), a drawing in the Royal Collection, Windsor (inv. no. 904067), and a number of paintings, including one version in the Uffizi, Florence.