Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
The Creation of Adamc. 1645/50
God the Father, surrounded by radiating light, reaches down from the clouds to touch Adam and bring him to life. More about this work
About this work
God the Father, surrounded by radiating light, reaches down from the clouds to touch Adam and bring him to life. Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione is credited with inventing the monotype in the 1640s: he covered a copper plate with ink, wiped and scratched the image out of the darkness with brushes, rags and sticks, and then printed a single strong impression. The method suits this subject perfectly, with light emerging from the dark, and the result has the freedom of a drawing combined with the rich blacks of a print.
Written by Ochre Editions.
What you’re looking at
Drawing of god, radiating light, reaching down from clouds, touching male figure.
Description from the Art Institute of Chicago.
How it was made
- Laid paper
- Handmade on a mould of close-set wires, which leave fine parallel lines you can see when the sheet is held to the light.
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
Italian, 1609–1664 · Born in Genoa; died in Mantua.
Castiglione, nicknamed Il Grechetto, trained in his native Genoa and worked in Rome before becoming court painter to the Gonzaga in Mantua. He painted pastoral journeys of the patriarchs crowded with animals and vessels, but his most original work is on paper: he invented the monotype, painting an image on a plate and pressing it onto a sheet, and made bold drawings with a brush loaded with oil paint. His etchings show the influence of Rembrandt.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Art Institute of Chicago has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1985.1113
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Type
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
