Circe with Companions of Ulysses Changed into Animals
Primary
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
(Genoa, Italy, 1609–Mantua, Italy, 1664)
NationalityItalian, Europe
Datecirca 1650-1651
MediumEtching
DimensionsSheet: 9 1/4 × 12 13/16 in. (23.5 × 32.5 cm)
Additional Dimension: 8 7/16 × 12 1/8 in. (21.5 × 30.8 cm)
Additional Dimension: 8 7/16 × 12 1/8 in. (21.5 × 30.8 cm)
Credit LineBlanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, The Leo Steinberg Collection, 2002.172
Rights Statement
Collection AreaPrints and Drawings
Object number2002.172
On View
Not on viewCirce renders the sorceress of the Odyssey as a contemplative shepherdess amid an aptly individualized flock. Animal subjects were especially popular in Genoa, largely due to the city’s contacts with the Netherlands, and Castiglione had an aptitude for them. (A comparable painting by his son and follower Francesco is exhibited nearby.) Outstanding in quality, Steinberg’s eleven Castigliones are the perfect complement to the nine major drawings in the Suida-Manning Collection.
Exhibitions
![L'entrata degli animali nell'arca [The Animals Entering Noah's Ark]](/internal/media/dispatcher/18336/thumbnail)
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
c. 1650
![Temporalis Aeternitas [The Four Sages]](/internal/media/dispatcher/18327/thumbnail)
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
1630
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
1630
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
1630
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
1630
Head of an Old Man with a Turban Facing to the Right, from the Small Heads with Oriental Headdresses
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
1630