Related Drawings

A dramatic and highly integrated composition such as Castiglione's altarpiece required a great deal of preparatory work before the artist's brush ever touched the canvas. Fortunately, several drawings and sketches exist that demonstrate the evolution of Institute's canvas–from the artist's most cursory musings to a highly developed sketch in colored oils.

A sheet of pen and ink sketches (fig. 1) shows Castiglione exploring several themes (Coronation of the Virgin, baptism) that arc around a Virgin with arms outstretched, standing on a crescent moon. In another sketch (fig. 2), he worked on the spatial relationship between the Virgin and one of the saints in the foreground.

About the same time he made the Institute's altarpiece, Castiglione created other paintings with various saints in attitudes of prayer, adoration, or ecstasy. Comparison of those figures to the preparatory sketches indicates that he was not averse to reusing them or adapting them to the requirements of another composition. The figure studies most closely related to the Institute's altarpiece (figs. 3, 4, 5) display the vitality and free handling typical of Castiglione's work at this time, and their degree of finish suggests preparatory models for a larger work.

Comparison of the highly developed oil sketch (fig. 6) with the Institute's altarpiece reveals how the artist finally resolved the composition. Most obvious is his full treatment of the angel choir flanking the Virgin. More subtle is the omission of the putti who, in the drawing, hold Saint Anthony's book. Their absence simplifies the composition and thereby adds emphasis to the figure of the enraptured saint.

Figure 1
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Italian, 1616-1670)
Studies for the Dead Christ Supported by God the Father; an Angel; and an Adoration
Verso: Studies for Coronation of the Virgin; Virgin of Mercy; and Babtism of Christ , 1660-1670
Pen and Brown ink
10 1/2 x 7 3/8 in.
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution/Art Resource, NY
Gift of Eleanor and Sarah Hewitt, 1931-73-313

Figure 2
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Italian, 1616-1670)
Untitled
Present location unknown

Figure 3
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Italian, 1616-1670)
Saint Francis in Prayer
Drawn in red-brown oil paint; partly touched with opaque white pigment
© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Figure 4
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Italian, 1616-1670)
Saint Francis in Prayer
Drawn in brown oil paint; partly colored in opaque gray pigment
© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Figure 5
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Italian, 1616-1670)
Saint Francis in Prayer
Drawn in red oil paint;
partly colored in green and heightened with opaque white pigment
© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Figure 6 Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Italian, 1616-1670)
The Virgin Adored by Saint Francis and Saint Anthony of Padua
Drawn in brown, blue-green, andred oil paint; heightened with opaque pigment
© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II