Lot Essay
This major late work by Castiglione was analysed in 1988 and 1992 by Mary Newcome, who notes that the subject is found in only two other Genoese works, a fresco of 1628-33 by Giovanni Andrea Ansaldo in the Palazzo Brignole and a drawing by Domenico Piola in the Louvre (no. 3914). Newcome stresses the Baroque character of the composition, its 'energia' and 'movimento drammatico', pointing to parallels with Cortona, Bernini and other artists and citing a drawing of a nude at Windsor (no. 3821; A.F. Blunt, The Drawings by G.B. Castiglione and Stefano della Bella at Windsor Castle, London, 1954, no. 218).
In the 1992 catalogue, Newcome suggests that the composition was inspired by the most dramatic of the giants in Giulio Romano's fresco of the Fall of the Giants in the Sala dei Giganti of the Palazzo del Te, Mantua, and suggests that the picture dates from the artist's sojourn in the city. Castiglione's patron was Carlo II Gonzaga Nevers with whom he had a long-standing connection. The painter was established at Mantua by 4 March 1661. He supplied 'pezzi venti di quadri favolosi' for Carlo II's Galleria dei Libri in the Ducal Palace, which are recorded, but not individually described in the inventory taken after the Duke's death on 10 December 1665. As Newcome notes (1992), some of Castiglione's Mantuan compositions may be recorded in copies, while the character of two works executed for the church of San Francesco, a Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew and a Saint Francis, is suggested by other extant treatments of the same themes by the artist.
In the 1992 catalogue, Newcome suggests that the composition was inspired by the most dramatic of the giants in Giulio Romano's fresco of the Fall of the Giants in the Sala dei Giganti of the Palazzo del Te, Mantua, and suggests that the picture dates from the artist's sojourn in the city. Castiglione's patron was Carlo II Gonzaga Nevers with whom he had a long-standing connection. The painter was established at Mantua by 4 March 1661. He supplied 'pezzi venti di quadri favolosi' for Carlo II's Galleria dei Libri in the Ducal Palace, which are recorded, but not individually described in the inventory taken after the Duke's death on 10 December 1665. As Newcome notes (1992), some of Castiglione's Mantuan compositions may be recorded in copies, while the character of two works executed for the church of San Francesco, a Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew and a Saint Francis, is suggested by other extant treatments of the same themes by the artist.