Giovanni Benedetto CASTIGLIONE (1609-1664): Head of a man wearing a feathered hat (Self-portrait, or Bernini portrait) - c. 1645-1650
Price: 6000 €
Etching, 135 x 188 mm. Bartsch 31, Bellini 8, 1st state/3.
Scarce impression of the 1st state (of 3), before the rework, the small head in profile and the CASTILIONUS inscription on the left below the portrait still clearly visible.
Fine impression printed on laid paper, trimmed just outside the platemark. Small traces of ink at the bottom, otherwise excellent condition.
Adam Bartsch believes it to be a self-portrait by Castiglione (Bartsch, vol. 21, no. 31, p. 27). However, he seems to have hesitated over this identification, as he also catalogs it a few pages later under no. 53, in the series of Grandes têtes d'hommes coëffées à l'Orientale, specifying: "It is claimed that this head represents the portrait of Castiglione". Exact identification of the model is still debated. Paolo Bellini isolated this plate from the Grandes têtes orientales series and believed it to be a portrait of the sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, whom Castiglione met in Rome.
Reference: Paolo Bellini, L'opera incisa di Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, 1982.