Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
Italian, 1609-1664
Circe with Companions of Ulysses Changed into Animals
INV-3048
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
Italian, 1609-16641650–51
Circe with Companions of Ulysses Changed into Animals
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione Italian, 1609-1664 →etchingprint
Date
1650–51
Medium
Etching on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image/sheet; cut within plate: 21.5 × 30.9 cm (8 1/2 × 12 3/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Prints and Drawings Purchase Fund
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione was a painter, printmaker, and draftsman who studied under Anthony van Dyck and Giovanni Andrea de Ferrari. He was known as a specialist in the depiction of animals, and the various creatures on the right of this etching show his dexterity. Circe, the daughter of the sun in Greek mythology, was a sorceress known for her ability to transform men into animals. In Homer’s Odyssey, Circe invites Ulysses and his men to a feast. During the meal, she drugs the men and turns them into pigs. Some art historians argue that because the animals in this etching are not pigs, the subject is actually the pensive figure of Melancholy, made famous by a 1514 Albrecht Dürer engraving.
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