The Offering of Noah or Noah's Offering
The Offering of Noah or Noah's Offering
- Artist
- Attributed to Salvatore Castiglione
- Artist Dates
- 1620-1676
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- The Offering of Noah or Noah's Offering
- Date
- possibly 1640s
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 97.8 x 122.6 cm (38-1/2 x 48 1/4 in)
- K Number
- K1705
- Repository
- El Paso Museum of Art
- Accession Number
- 1961.1.40
- Notes
Provenance
(Rubinacci, Genoa). (Armando Sabatello, Rome). (Ars Antiqua, New York); sold to Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955] on 4 April 1950 as Benedetto Castiglione; gift to El Paso Museum of Art in 1961, no. 1961.1.40.
Catalogue Entry
Attributed to Salvatore Castiglione
The Offering of Noah or Noah's Offering
K1705
El Paso, Tex., El Paso Museum of Art (1961-6/36) since 1961.(1) Canvas. 38 1/2 x 48 1/4 in. (97.8 x 122.6 cm.). Fair condition; abraded in background and in figure of God the Father. Formerly attributed to Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione,(2) K1705 is found to exhibit peculiarities of Francesco's version of his father's style: shortened figures, larger heads, and exaggerated expressions.(3) The contrast with his father's style may be appreciated by comparing the figures in K1705 with those in K1933, or, even more strikingly, by comparing K1705 with Giovanni Benedetto's Sacrifice of Noah dated 1659, in a private collection in Genoa.(4) Finally, it may be noted that the general composition of K1705 and especially the two half-nude figures in the foreground were likely derived from Poussin, through Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione. A close model for one of the two figures in question is to be seen in Poussin's Crossing of the Red Sea,(5) and both of them, as well as the general scheme for the whole composition, are reflected in imitations of a Sacrifice of Noah by Poussin which is apparently now lost.(6) Provenance: Rubinacci, Genoa.(7) Armando Sabatello, Rome. Ars Antiqua, New York (1945). Kress acquisition, 1950.
References
(1) Catalogue by F. R. Shapley, 1961, no. 36, as Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione. (2) K1705 has been attributed to Giovanni Benedetto's mature period by R. Longhi (in ms. opinion); see also note 2, above. (3) Peculiarities of Francesco's style noted by Percy (loc. cit. in note 1, above), who tentatively attributes K1705 to Francesco. (4) Reproduced ibid., fig. 31. Closer in composition to this than K1705 is another Sacrifice of Noah, which Percy (pp. 42, 59 n. 143) thinks is likely by Francesco Castiglione; this is in the Istituto Pietro Torriglia, Chiavari (reproduced by A. Podesta, in Emporium, vol. CXXXIX, 1964, p. 117, fig. 7, as Giovanni Benedetto). (5) Detail reproduced by A. Blunt, in Journal of Warburg and Courtallid Institutes, vol. III, 1939/40, pl. 29d. (6) See Blunt (in Burlington Magazine, vol. CIV, 1962, pp. 486 ff.) for a study of Poussin falsifications; cf. especially his figs. 14 and 17 for the kneeling men. A drawing at Windsor Castle (no. 3952) classified by Blunt (The Drawings of G. B. Castiglione ... at Windsor Castle, 1954, p. 39, pl. 39) as Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione based on a lost composition by Poussin, shows most of the figures in the Sacrifice of Noah much as they appear in K1705, but more compactly grouped. (7) At one time here, according to Percy, p. 60 n. 164 of op. cit. in note 1, above.