Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione

Republic of Genoa · 1609–1665

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione was an Italian Baroque painter, printmaker and draftsman, of the Genoese school. He is best known now for his etchings, and as the inventor of the printmaking technique of monotyping. He was known as Il Grechetto in Italy and in France as Le Benédette. He painted portraits, history paintings and landscapes, but came to specialize in rural scenes with more animals than human figures. Noah's Ark and the animals entering the Ark was a favourite subject of his, and he devised a number of other new subjects from the early parts of the Old Testament with the patriarchs and their animals.