Castiglione, Giovanni Benedetto

Castiglione, Giovanni Benedetto (called il Grechetto), an eminent Italian painter and engraver, was born at Genoa in 1616, and studied for some time under Giovanni Andrea Ferrari. He afterwards visited Rome, Florence, Parma, and Venice, in each of which cities he left proofs of his ability. His Nativity, in the Church of San Luca at Genoa, and his Magdalene and St. Catherine, in the Madonna di Castello, are fine works of art. He died at Mantua in 1670. Some of his engravings are: Noah Driving the Animals into the Ark; The Departure of Jacob; Rachel Hiding her Father's Images; The Adoration of the Shepherds; The Angel Appearing to Joseph in his Dream The Flight into Egypt; The Finding of the Bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul. See Spooner, Biog. Hist. of the Fine Arts, s.v.; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Géneralé s.v.