Man wearing a small turban, facing right, from "Small Heads in Oriental Headdress"
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
sheet: 4 5/16 x 3 1/8 in. (11 x 8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1917
Accession Number
17.50.17-75
Tags
Art Historical Context
Behold *Man wearing a small turban, facing right a delicate etching from Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione's (Il Grechetto) seriesSmall Heads in Oriental Headdress*, created around 1645–50. This 17th-century Italian Baroque master, active in Genoa and influenced by Rembrandt, captured intimate portraits of imagined Eastern figures, blending exoticism with virtuoso printmaking. At just 4 5/16 x 3 1/8 inches, the sheet invites close viewing, its subject—a man in a modest turban gazing right—evoking quiet dignity amid the era's growing fascination with Oriental cultures through trade and travel. Ca...
About the Artist
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Il Grechetto) · 1609–1664
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, known as Il Grechetto, was baptized on March 23, 1609, in Genoa and died on May 5, 1664, in Mantua. Born into a large family, he collaborated closely with his brother Salvatore, an artist who shared his talents, and later taught his son Francesco, whose works were sometimes confused with his own. His parents placed him in the studio of Giovanni Battista Paggi, where...