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Lot Essay
Giovanni Francesco Castiglione was the son and pupil of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, known as Il Grechetto (c. 1609-1663/5). He spent his formative years travelling with his father between their native Genoa and Rome, Venice, and the courts of Padua and Mantua. After his father's death around 1664, Giovanni Francesco's more individual style emerged, and after receiving commissions from prestigious Gonzaga patrons such as the Marchese Ottavio Gonzaga the Elder, he became court painter to Duke Ferdinando Carlo in Mantua in 1681.
The present, beautifully preserved Rest during the falcon hunt is among the finest extant examples of Giovanni Francesco's small painted oeuvre. Camillo Manzitti has confirmed the authorship of the present canvas and suggested a dating in the late 1689s (written communication, 10 February 2000), relating it to other works from the artist's period in the service of the Gonzaga at Mantua. Manzitti has further suggested that the figure holding the falcon at right, who looks directly out to meet the viewer's gaze, is probably a portrait of a particular member of the Gonzaga court. He has also pointed out that the young boy at right, tending to the hounds, reappears in the Flight of Jacob by Giovanni Francesco from the Kress Collection (Lincoln, University of Nebraska, inv. K 1775 B).
The subject, which takes its inspiration from Dutch and Flemish hunting scenes the artist would have known in Genoese collections, is typical of the art of the Castiglione, which fused the tradition of Italian history painting with that of northern barnyard and hunting pictures, such as those by Frans Snyders, which were widely collected in Italy at the time.
The present, beautifully preserved Rest during the falcon hunt is among the finest extant examples of Giovanni Francesco's small painted oeuvre. Camillo Manzitti has confirmed the authorship of the present canvas and suggested a dating in the late 1689s (written communication, 10 February 2000), relating it to other works from the artist's period in the service of the Gonzaga at Mantua. Manzitti has further suggested that the figure holding the falcon at right, who looks directly out to meet the viewer's gaze, is probably a portrait of a particular member of the Gonzaga court. He has also pointed out that the young boy at right, tending to the hounds, reappears in the Flight of Jacob by Giovanni Francesco from the Kress Collection (Lincoln, University of Nebraska, inv. K 1775 B).
The subject, which takes its inspiration from Dutch and Flemish hunting scenes the artist would have known in Genoese collections, is typical of the art of the Castiglione, which fused the tradition of Italian history painting with that of northern barnyard and hunting pictures, such as those by Frans Snyders, which were widely collected in Italy at the time.